Urchin
by Banshi
Summary: A long story about Duo fixing the problems left after the war for L2, the man trying to subvert him, and the man helping him. Yaoi 2x3. *COMPLETE*
1. Beef with the Government

_Warnings: The world is unjust, associated angst._

Pairings:2+3, all others undecided het.

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is the property of Bandai, Sunrise and Viz Comics. I'm using the characters for fun and not recieving any money. The intellectual property that is this specific story however _does_ belong to me, and I'd like to keep it, even if it doesn't help to pay the bills. Thank You.

Notes: Suprisingly there isn't much sappy emotion going on here, it's *gasp* mostly plot. I'll get to the sappy romance bits later. Flame me later, enjoy the story now.

Urchin

_by Banshi_

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Part One

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Duo stretched his legs out in front of him as he learned against the tree trunk. The blue sky was cloudless, and he could enjoy the view without the sun getting in his eyes. He was studying the sheep contrast between the deep green of the leaves and the endless blue of the sky when Quatre found him.

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The blond stopped a moment to admire the silly, lopsided smile on Duo's face before interrupting.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" The smile on Duo's face evened out as he flicked his gaze down to Quatre and back up to the sky.

"Yep. Sometimes I can just look up and get lost. There's nothing to focus on when there aren't any clouds, the blue just goes on forever." Duo heaved a contented sigh and moved to pat the ground in invitation. Quatre was already sitting down against the ancient tree.

"What's on your mind Quatre?" Duo still wasn't looking at him, but Quatre knew that he had his friend's undivided attention. 

"Lots of stuff, but mostly that the press is too damn nosy." Quatre sighed and also turned his gaze to the sky. Duo was right, it just kept going on and on, a depthless blue. He sighed again and let some of the tension left from his afternoon press conference seep out of his shoulders. A deep chuckle sounded from beside him.

"It's their job to be nosy. You'll notice that the only reason Relena gets any peace is because nobody glares like Heero, and she's such a darling that the tabloids won't be touch her. Though, I give that only another year or two." Duo chuckled again as he pulled his braid around so that he could play with the end. Not for the first time Quatre was reminded of a giant cat and a piece of string.

"It's not so much that they're around, it's that they don't want to know the same things that I want to tell them. Like how the new satellite systems are a benefit to the colonies as much as they are to Earth. No, they want to know who I'm taking to the grand opening of the War Memorial and what designer she'll be wearing." Quatre sighed again, and made a conscious effort to bring some of the sky's tranquility into himself. Silence reigned for a while as both young men lost themselves in thought. Quatre tried not to think of the war memorial at all, let alone who he was going to bring as his date. He had just barely begun to succeed at that endeavor when Duo spoke up again.

"Why not show up as a group. We are all invited after all. Une, Sally, Noin, Hilde, Relena, Zechs, Catherine, Dorothy and the five of us by name. Howard and his crew and the Maganacs by inference. We could just swarm the ballroom and show them exactly who they owe for this." His voice was quiet and more intense than Quatre had heard it in a long time.

"Why not indeed. Although, they may be hoping that nobody picked up the inference to the mechanics and the Maganacs. Or they would have rented a bigger ballroom."

"Tough cookies."

That made Quatre smile. He started laughing while he formulated his answer to the next "date" question at a press conference. Duo actually looked at him, and raised an eyebrow in question when he had calmed down. Quatre responded in a mimicked conversation.

"Mr. Winner, who are you bringing to the War Memorial Gala?"

"Everybody who should be there."

"Have you chosen a designer for ... everybody?"

"No. Last I checked they could all dress themselves."

Duo started with a snort and ended up guffawing.

"Can you imagine the facial expressions?"

Quatre just nodded. They spent the rest of the afternoon planning all the transportation and coordinating of press releases in the cheerful sunlight.

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The War Memorial was not improving anybody's mood. The press had reacted as expected to the announcements of both Relena and Quatre that they did not have dates, they were bringing a group. Questions about what everyone would be wearing stopped when a cheerful voice commented that fashion hadn't been this big a deal since the heir to the Rivers dynasty had gone to military school. Relena had tried not to glomp Duo in thanks, but the photographers had gotten great photos of the friendly hug. Duo winced in Heero's direction, but the other man just shrugged it off, stating clearly that he didn't mind and the reporters could do what they wanted with it.

Now they were all standing I the large ballroom in a tight huddle, most having rebuffed fashion commentators by coming in their dress uniforms. They were all pointedly ignoring the large white stone statue of the Gundams.

Duo had been looking around the room for the last thirty minutes, evaluating the monetary value of the decor. He had tried to break himself of the habit while staying with Quatre, just so he wouldn't put Rashid on edge. Now the impulse was back with a vengeance, and he felt no need to suppress it.

He had started getting angry when he realized that the champagne glasses would have kept all the Maxwell Church orphans in shoes for almost two years. What could have been fresh food for longer than he had been living at the Church was hanging from the necks of their 'gracious' hosts. He didn't even want to think about how much good could have been done with the money that had been poured into the hunk of white rock outside the window. 

He seethed quietly, but noticed that he wasn't alone. The others had reasons of their own for not liking the shaped hunk of rock, but the point was that _none_ of them liked it. 

That fact had upset the poor socialites. Duo tried not to snicker or let the dark sarcasm seep into his facial expression. Hilde, Wufei and Trowa all caught it anyway. Duo decided to share his joy.

"So Wu, how'd they do with Nataku? They didn't butcher her too, did they?" Wufei's answer was a single, eloquent snort of derision. Duo took it to mean: "Yes they butchered her, and it's injustice, but I promised to behave, so drop it Maxwell." From Hilde's expression, Duo wasn't the only one who had gotten the message. They grinned maniacally at each other for just a second before a movement at the edge of his vision distracted Duo.

Some of the socialites who were responsible for the "honor" of building the monument were getting huffy.

"Hey guys, I don't think they feel our gratitude." Several eyes turned to their hosts, and the Maganacs almost spoke their collective mind. Only Quatre stemmed the tide.

"They tried. We should at least appreciate the effort." His aqua eyes pleaded with Duo to be nice. Duo nodded, he would try...in a minute. Right now, he felt the need to share, whether the socialites could hear him or not.

"That doesn't make them any less hypocritical. They just built the thing to keep us from looking at how much they contributed to OZ and/or Romafeller." He kept his voice low so that Quatre wouldn't have to answer for the sake of their hosts. The blond decided not to, but Trowa did.

"It doesn't matter anymore Duo. Nobody except those still attempting military action can be held accountable for their actions then. That's why Une got her job."

"Ok, so it's not all bad. That doesn't put food into the bellies of people still starving up on the colonies, or down here for that matter. A big white rock shaped into deformed Gundams won't find homes for the orphans. These guys get to eat caviar, the attraction to which I will never understand, drink champagne and hobnob while some kid down the street has to fight to the death for a loaf of bread." Duo stopped to take a breath, trying to calm himself. He hadn't meant to get that angry, or break into a justice rant. The intensity of his rage took him by surprise, and gave him a new perspective on Wufei. Sister Helen would have called his rage-induced realization an epiphany, and been very sad for him. He looked into Quatre's wide eyes and knew that his friend was feeling what he was feeling, and it turned his angry grin into one of sad regret.

"Duo..." Quatre reached out to him, and he had to step back. He had to get out of here before he lost it and threw his rage at the unsuspecting wealthy. Setting his glass down hard on a table he turned back to his friends and tried to make them understand, without sharing his pain.

"Nothing's really changed, the store clerks just can't shoot at us anymore." He turned and fled.

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Trowa felt his eyes widen as he watched Duo flee the ballroom, making several of their huffy hosts move to get out of his way. He echoed Quatre's question.

"Us?" 

They exchanged worried glances before Hilde broke away from the group to follow their friend, leaving a very concerned crowd behind.

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"Duo. Duo! DUO, STOP DAMMIT!" Hilde sprinted as she saw him stop where he was and wait. He didn't turn around. She drew up next to him and they just stood there while she caught her breath. Just when she was going to speak, he beat her to it.

"What can I do for you Hilde?" She just gawked at him for a couple seconds while her brain caught up with him. Then she got angry...sort of.

"You just about blew up in there! We're worried. You're usually more in control than that." His face didn't change, and Hilde grew frustrated with the jerky, unconnected sentences that came out of her mouth. He started to answer, no doubt with some elegantly constructed stream of babble designed to get her to leave him alone. To hell with that.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" If he wouldn't explode, then she would. However, she hadn't meant to do it that loudly. They both looked around them with wide eyes, and determined that they were alone but exposed. As she looked at the building behind her, she noticed an audience gathering at the windows. They could see, but not hear... hopefully. She resisted the urge to flip them off as Duo grabbed her hand and pulled her into the garden at the side of the parking lot, and out of sight.

When they stopped, she gave her friend her undivided attention. He looked uncomfortable, and she knew he'd try to get out of talking to her.

Like Hell.

"Hilde...," he looked her strait in they eye and pouted. So she interrupted him.

"No excuses Duo. Something is bugging you, more than the hypocrisy, and your friends are worried about you. So spill. What set you off...why today?" She planted her hands on her hips and tried to look stubborn. Apparently it worked, because Duo sighed and let his shoulders sag, nearly deflating as he plopped onto the ground. Hilde sat down in front of him and watched his long fingers pick at the grass. He spoke up before she could lose patience.

"Its been this whole week. We're heroes, we helped usher in World Peace, and it's just like everything else. The wealthy have it, the poor don't. You came with me to L2, you saw it all. How many more kids like me did I make? How many of them will die by the end of this party because nobody told them that they didn't have to fight anymore. I'm sitting here, breathing clean air and well fed, while there are so many of them being passed over for vaccinations or food donations. It turns my stomach Hilde, and I don't know how to fix it."

He hadn't looked away from the ground once while he was speaking and didn't look up now. Hilde felt her heart constrict in sympathy, but didn't know what to say. She reached forward and ghosted soothing circles over his shoulders, trying to say with touch what words couldn't express.

Without looking up he put his hand over hers and squeezed. Message received, loud and clear. She thought for a moment before speaking, hoping that her words would be what he needed.

"There are no easy, quick fixes, to any of our problems. Relena and her supporters are tackling to big problems first. Maybe they help the small problems little by little, until they get to the problems specifically."

"Maybe. And maybe at least one of those fancy-pants, fat cats actually cares about something besides their bottom line. It doesn't change the fact that peace is like the vaccine for the L2 plague: available only to those who can afford it." He turned his face up to look at her, and the expression in his eyes was heartbreaking. She didn't know what to say, and she knew that he saw that. He took her hand and planted a quick peck on her palm before he stood up. She followed, her hand still in his. She glanced back at the building, most of their audience had retreated. Hilde turned back to Duo, knowing that he wasn't going back to the gala.

"You know that you're my best friend and that I'd do anything for you, right?" He smiled a little and nodded. She continued, "So you know that you can always call me to help you, with anything." The smile got bigger, and Hilde knew that her meaning had been understood.

"Yeah, I know, and I appreciate the offer. Need to come up with the 'mission parameters' first though." They laughed and the gloom lifted a little. He kissed her hand again before letting go and walking to his car. He left without a backward glance.

Hilde sighed and began the short walk back inside, brushing grass from her shirt. She looked up at the windows. Only Trowa had remained, watching. She had the distinct feeling that he hadn't only been watching, but was _on_ Watch. She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. He didn't indicate that it had worked, but nodded in acknowledgment. He didn't leave the window, even as Hilde opened the door and stepped inside.

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_continued in part two_


	2. The Bad Guy

_Part Two_

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Trowa wasn't sure what he was feeling, let alone why he was feeling it. Duo had stormed out, seemingly unaware that he had let his insecurity slip. Now Trowa was sure that it hadn't been insecurity, but more a loyal association. Duo had never claimed to be other than a child of the streets. A Gundam pilot, of course. Shinigami, whenever possible, but always under it all he was the street urchin. Now, without the need for the other two identifications, the first had regained it's priority.

Though Trowa didn't understand how that had caused a pain in his own chest in response to the pain in his friend's eyes. He didn't know what to do about it. He turned his attention from the window only after Duo's car was completely out of sight, though he had been eavesdropping on the conversations around him almost since Duo had left the room.

Some very nasty name-calling had ensued, though not loud enough so that Quatre and Relena could hear. Trowa knew that both were aware of it anyway, and would make their displeasure known at future meetings.

For now, both were content to let the hosts prove Duo right by their words and actions. They would all find out that this was one group for whom money did not talk.

Trowa was waiting by the door when Hilde walked in. Her eyes found him immediately, and she paused on her way to talk to Quatre and Wufei.

"Upset, but OK."

And that was all he needed to know.

He nodded and she moved to the center of the room, and was immediately surrounded by worried friends. Trowa's eyes met Heero's over Hilde's head and they nodded to each other. As if they were orchestrating a defensive parameter they moved away from the central group and took up positions so that they had optimum surveillance of the other guests.

Trowa heard Hilde as he walked passed, seemingly going to help himself to the buffet. He stopped just inside hearing range. He realized that he didn't _need_ more information on what was bothering Duo. He _wanted_ it though.

"He's upset with all the things that he was upset about before he met G."

Trowa had to consciously keep his eyes from widening and fought for his composure. He sipped his drink calmly and listened as Hilde continued.

"All the things that he was fighting for, his goals in the war, they're all still there, unrealized. We were all fighting for independence, then peace. He was fighting so that his childhood wouldn't happen to anyone else. And it is, every day."

Hilde looked on the verge of tears, and Quatre put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. There were also unshed tears in his eyes. Trowa put down his drink and drifted around the buffet table, away from his group, but able to hear others.

"...and Cindy knows that the vultures won't leave her alone for less than a million..."

"...hoping that Winner would be open to..."

"...hear he used to work for OZ. More on the front lines than that psycho in charge of the Preventers, but..."

"...daughter goes to Peacecraft's school. It's lovely since it reopened..."

"...so hot this time of year, I don't know why they don't..."

"...little street-rat stole his Gundam. Makes you wonder how much smoother things would have gone if the real pilot had been there."

Trowa stopped wandering, that last voice just on the edge of his hearing. He pretended to be engrossed with the view outside while trying to pinpoint the owner of that last comment. Duo's origins and his unusual acquisition of Deathscyth were NOT common knowledge.

"It would have been a much cleaner war without that untrained goof-off there to screw everything up. I hear he even killed Noventa. Was probably enjoying himself too much to let it end that soon."

Trowa's fist tightened as he heard the man and his audience laugh. They were off to the side, near the orchestra and almost out of sight. 

Trowa did a quick visual of the room and met Heero's eyes almost immediately. He then tilted his head in the direction of the group bad-mouthing Duo. Heero nodded and drifted around so that he could hear them without being seen.

They continued their conversation and Trowa was amazed by how much private information they had and how much public knowledge they were missing. It seemed that the only thing they weren't blaming Duo for was the attack on Earth by White Fang.

Trowa snagged the glass that the speaker had been using as the waiter whisked it off. He apologized to the flustered young man for bumping into him while deftly slipping the wine glass into the cloth napkin in his hand.

Mid-way through another commentary on the war, with Une as the focus this time, one of the audience spotted Heero. The topic suddenly changed to economically viable options for the establishment of boarding schools to teach young pacifists to be just like Relena.

Trowa had had enough anyway. He nodded good-bye to Quatre and Une, and left without a word. The napkin was still in his hand, with it's cargo.

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The lab attendant was giving Duo a weird look after he had finished explaining what he wanted. He gave her his best charming smile. She just rolled her eyes and sighed, giving into the inevitable.

A few hours later, Duo's pager went off, and he went back to the lab. The same attendant greeted him.

"You check out all right. This is in concert with a full physical, right?"

"Yeah, I'm going to do that next week. I needed to do this first."

He took the folder that she handed to him. He briefly flipped through it. His eyes picked up the names of the tests that he had requested, and few others that Sally had said would go with them. The attendant nodded and smiled at him, before being interrupted by the phone ringing.

Duo grinned, mouthed 'Thank You' and walked away.

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

Walking out of the clinic, Duo rubbed the bandage on the inside of his elbow gingerly. He hated shots, but in this case they were necessary. He knew he would have killed to get those same shots when he was a kid. He would have massacred to get those shots for Solo and the gang.

As it was, everybody was still breathing, and he was thoroughly vaccinated and ready to tackle his 'mission.' He almost snorted at the thought, but was pleased with himself.

He was finally fighting _his_ fight.

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Trowa thanked Sally before hanging up. She had been kind enough to keep him posted on Duo, after he had expressed his worry. His concern was shared by everyone that the American considered a friend.

Now Trowa was confused. Duo had taken on as much freelance work and extra Preventers missions as he could in the last few weeks. Bank transactions showed that all of the extra money had gone into easy-access accounts, but hadn't bee touched. 

Duo had also renewed the leases on his two homes. His apartment on Earth where he was staying now, and the shack he had gotten on L2. Last time Trowa had spoken to Duo, he had said that he was giving the place on L2 up, now that there were so many people in the salvage business.

Had Duo changed his mind?

Trowa leaned back in his chair and tried to figure out what his friend was doing. He quickly figured out that any conclusion would have to wait until he knew more.

Unfortunately, he seemed to always be two steps behind Duo. Not that this was unusual in everyday life, Duo had enough energy to make the Energizer Bunny jealous. Now, however, it was annoying. Trowa assessed the probability of catching up to Duo's plans versus just catching up to Duo himself.

Second-guessing Duo's plans based on second-hand information looked like the better option. Trowa still hadn't figured out when Duo was finding time to sleep, or if the other man was living off of caffeine and sugar. 

With a sigh, Trowa prepared for the next round of phone calls and illegal computer file entries. He'd figure out what Duo was up to if he had to follow the braided idiot to hell and back.

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_continued in part three_


	3. Getting Settled

Part Three

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Duo looked at his apartment and thought of a haunted house. Sheets covered the furniture, and the floor rugs were stored away. He had all the utilities shut off and he had built his own forwarding software for his e-mail and vid-phone. He was all set to leave home...for home.

He sighed and lifted his backpack and duffel bag. At twenty years old he would be mistaken for just another college student. He had even heard of a few who went to L2 to do research for their doctoral thesis. Yeah, at nearly six-foot and 170 pounds with a long braid and silly grin, he'd fit right in.

Duo laughed at himself and left the apartment, locking the door behind him. He waited for the mechanic whine and buzz of the security system being activated before he walked down the hall.

An hour later he was sitting at a laptop terminal in the shuttleport, sending e-mails to everyone who would worry if he suddenly disappeared. Quatre, Heero and Relena all replied immediately.

"Hard at work, I see." Duo snickered to himself, drawing a few curious glances. He gestured at his laptop. Several headed nodded knowingly, and everyone returned to their own business.

Wufei had mentioned an upcoming away-mission a couple of days ago, so Duo didn't expect an answer. Howard sent a 'bon voyage' message immediately. Hilde was at a job interview with a new personal security firm. He added 'good luck' to the end.

As each message was sent, he put a check-mark next to a name on his list. Soon, there was only one more, and abruptly Duo's palms started sweating.

Trowa.

Just the guy's name gave Duo jitters, and it wasn't even his real name. Not that that really mattered in their group, but still! Duo was definitely victim to his passive-aggressive tendencies where Trowa was concerned. There were moments when the acrobat scared him more than Heero ever could. Those were the same moments when Duo wasn't sure he should go all googly-eyed or run for his life.

Duo sighed and forced himself back to reality. He typed a quick 'hello/good-bye and where to reach me' and sent it off.

As he was packing his laptop back up, his shuttle was called and he had to sprint to the gate.

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

Trowa walked into his trailer to fix lunch, and found his computer beeping at him. It was a message from Duo. 

**Hey, Trowa! I'm letting everybody know that I'm going to be off-world for a while. Don't plan any parties without me! My home e-mail and vid-phone are being forwarded, so call if you feel like it.**

See ya!

-D.

Trowa blinked at the message. He was three steps behind Duo now, and had no idea where to go from here. He couldn't just follow Duo without having to explain himself, and he still had no idea why he was doing any of this. The same problem arose with calling any of the others for advice. So, what was Duo doing, and what was he, Trowa, going to do about it?

...

Trowa decided to make lunch, and think through what he knew. In the sandwich-making process, Trowa ordered his thoughts.

He knew that Duo had renewed both of his leases, but was obviously not staying on Earth...ergo his most likely destination was L2.

He knew that Duo now had a large amount of disposable income, and had taken an extended vacation from _all_ of his jobs.

He knew that the only leisure that Duo accepted was physically active, sports, hiking etc. The man couldn't just lounge around.

Ergo, Duo had not left all his work with lots of money to go relax. Besides, L2 was the _last_ place anybody went to relax.

He knew that Duo was upset about conditions for war orphans everywhere.

He knew that Duo had been a war orphan on L2.

Ergo, Duo was going to L2 to fix the problem himself.

Trowa ate his sandwich and munched on his corn chips. After he talked with Cathy and the Ring Master he would book a seat on the next shuttle to L2.

After washing his plate, Trowa sent a reply to Duo. Then he started packing.

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"Trowa, what the hell do you think you're doing?" As a man not given to speaking when spoken to, Trowa was shocked to find that he was muttering to himself. He stood in the busy terminal, ticket in hand, staring at the display of flight departures. The shuttle to L2 had been delayed due to a technical problem. The display gave a display estimate of one hour. That translated to two or three hours in real time. 

Unfortunately this gave Trowa time to consider his actions, and now he was doubting, hesitating. He was following Duo, and he had no idea what to say when he caught up to his friend.

_Hi Duo, I know that I invited myself, but I worry about you. I was hoping that you wouldn't mind, and by-the-way would you be interested in being more than friends?_

Trowa caught himself between a self-depreciating snort and a groan of despair. Neither of which made it out of his throat or into his facial expression. He stared out into the terminal, clinging to his cup of coffee. An inane thought occurred to him, and he nearly chuckled, but got it down to a wisp of a smile just in time. 

He remembered Duo once reading a book on divining the future from tea leaves. They all had had run-ins with Duo's loose leaf tea over that week before Quatre put his foot down. Now, Trowa wondered if the same principle applied to the coffee grounds now sticking to the bottom of his paper cup.

Staring into the cup, Trowa tried to see how anybody could think that the future could come from a beverage, even if tea leaves did make shapes. Trowa continued to stare at the coffee grounds, and found himself imagining the next few weeks with Duo. He imagined himself happy, and it caused an ache in his chest.

Trowa brought himself back to reality. He reminded himself that he was going as a friend, nothing more. He would have to content himself with that.

With Duo, friendship was more than enough. Trowa found himself smiling very slightly as he imagined the friendly, rib-crushing hug he'd receive when he saw Duo. The same as the hugs he received every time he saw Duo.

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When Duo had gotten himself settled into his tiny L2 home, the first thing he did was eat. The second was to set up his laptop. Immediately the message indicator beeped.

There was one from Hilde - she had gotten the job. There was one from Une, telling him to be aggressive with the L2 authorities about the Preventers' presence. There was one from Sally, telling him good luck.

And there was one from Trowa - telling him that he needed to figure out a guest room ASAP.

**Duo,**

I received your message. I'll meet you at your place on L2. You need some back-up, no matter what.

Trowa

Short and to the point. Duo groaned, but pulled up his supply database. Sure enough, there was extra bedding in a warehouse near-by. He grabbed his coat and activated the security system, jogging down the street.

Everything was set up by the time the mail arrived with his package. He unpacked all of the dry and canned food, sorting it into piles, and putting away the portion that would supply his own kitchen. He hadn't added any to account for Trowa, he would just have to re-order sooner than he had planned.

He was still boxing up the rest when his doorbell rang. He knew who it was even before his mind registered the sound. He slowly walked to the door while his stomach did those absurd flip-flops. He unbolted the door and pulled it open, prepared for the sight that greeted him...and yet not.

Trowa was trying not to show that he had just been caught chewing his lower lip. This evidence that the other man was just as nervous as he was made Duo much braver. It may not be for the same reason, but it was something. 

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

_continued in part four_


	4. Dream-Duo

The Urchin: Part Four

_By Banshi_

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_There is an additional warning to this part: it's weird, very weird. This is a dream sequence, and so any logical flaws and such could just be dismissed in the inherent chaos of dreams. This will be relevant later on, I promise._

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Duo lay in his bed, just listening to Trowa breathe. It was a tiny house, and Duo didn't have a guest room and the living room was full of boxes, so they were sleeping on two futons on the floor of his bedroom.

Trowa was less than five feet away, taking deep, even breaths. Indigo eyes stared resolutely at the ceiling, refusing to give into the temptation to drink in the sight of his friend. It would give him dreams, and he didn't want dreams.

Eventually he drifted off, and the night continued peacefully.

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

Trowa was dreaming, and on some level he knew he was dreaming, but he didn't care. He was standing on the observation deck of the Peacemallion, watching the stars go by. They drifted at a leisurely pace. Everything was silent, but not oppressive. Trowa felt at peace.

Then there was a pair of strong arms around him, but he couldn't turn around to see who it was, and he wasn't picking up *any* non-visual clues. The man's arms were bare, the hands clasped over his stomach, hiding any calluses. 

Trowa's alarm drifted away. He was standing in the embrace of an unknown man, and he was content, even when he noticed that his reflection in the window was still alone. Together they watched the stars drift by, and slowly Trowa became aware of music. It sounded like an orchestra, but the tuning was a little off. He tilted his head, trying to catch the illusive sound. The arms tightened briefly before a questioning noise came from his companion's throat.

"I can't tell what they're playing." For some reason this upset him a great deal, as if knowing the name of the music was the key to everything.

"So don't try so hard."

The voice was deep and clear and heartbreakingly familiar. Trowa took Duo's advice and stopped trying to hear the music, and stared out the window again. His reflection was still alone. He leaned back into Duo's chest, and felt the other man's chin lean on his shoulder. The warmth he felt was incredible, and he closed his eyes. He felt his breathing even out and drop into the same rhythm as the rise and fall of the chest behind him, and the gentle caress of Duo's breath against his ear.

Suddenly the music was much closer, but he still didn't recognize it. Duo's arms started to loosen and pull away. Trowa felt panic shoot through him and he clutched at the other man's sleeve as his eyes snapped open.

Wait...sleeve?

He looked down and saw the soft white fabric encasing Duo's arms. Then he looked up and saw the richly decorated room that they were standing in...still alone. The room looked like an old sandstone temple he had hidden Heavyarms in once, with lots of rugs and tapestries and curtains and jewel tones. It radiated warmth and comfort and he felt the panic recede, especially since Duo resettled his arms, right where Trowa wanted them.

Trowa was caught between wanting to never move again and wanting to turn around and see Duo instead of just feeling him. He stayed with the not-moving option just out of indecision. Then Duo's hands unclasped and his arms moved away, but before Trowa could reach out again Duo had a firm grip on his shoulders. Duo was turning him so that they faced each other. Irrationally Trowa didn't want to look.

It had been a pleasant dream, and he had been able to get as close to the object of his affections as he wanted. Instinctively he knew that this was a turning point in the dream. All previous turning points had lead to nightmares, and he didn't want to see what his nightmares would do to Duo.

"Open your eyes Love. Nothing here will hurt you."

And that was that...the decision made. Duo never lied. Trowa opened his eyes, and every dream he had ever had, _could_ ever have, paled in comparison to the vision before him. He could die happy as long as he never forgot this.

Duo just stood there, barefoot, in hip-hugging jeans and an unbuttoned, billowy white dress shirt. His hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and he was smiling a knowing, loving smile.

"Well that wasn't so bad, was it Love?"

Trowa didn't care that he was dreaming, that none of this was real, that he would miss it all when he woke up. All he cared about was that Duo was there, touching him, declaring that he wouldn't mind being touched in return.

And he had called Trowa "Love". Twice.

"No Duo, not bad at all." Duo grinned, and Trowa reached out for him, ghosting his fingers over the warm skin at Duo's waist. His fingers traveled under the shirt and around to Duo's back as they stepped into each others arms. Trowa tightened his embrace, reveling for a moment in the warmth of Duo's body against his, Duo's scent all around him and the echo of his own pounding heart. He looked strait into Duo's indigo eyes and said the first thing that came to mind.

"Thank you Love." Duo smiled, and the world melted away.

Trowa woke with that last image echoing against the back of his eyelids and the feeling of Duo's arms around him. He expected the sudden transition to leave him feeling bereft and cold, but the content feeling stayed with him.

He watched Duo sleep for a little while before drifting back off, a strange, satisfied smile on his face. 

~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~

_continued in part five...Duo's turn!_


	5. Damage Control

The Urchin: Part Five

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine. Neither is Leslie or the clinic, they belong to DC comics._

Notes: Well, maybe while I'm reading Kafka isn't the best time to work on this fic, but who knows, it may be better for the hopelessness thrown in. I tried to keep the mood from getting too dark (and may have ended up making it too light, oh well). So that's the deal with this one.

Enjoy (or not), but review either way, 'K?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo awoke from a dream feeling like he had hit a brick wall. Which he had, if reality counted as brick. He fought the ache in his chest and the sudden hopelessness that engulfed him.

Soon he had calmed himself down, separated dream from reality, and was in general feeling better, if not happier. He turned his head to look at his friend and noted the smile on Trowa's face. It wasn't quite smug, but not innocent either. He wondered if Trowa had better dreams than he did.

Probably.

Duo turned his gaze back up to the ceiling, listening to the colony around him. There were no sirens on L2, at least not the ones usually used by the "authorities". Police and paramedics knew better than to announce their presence. If they showed up at all.

Duo sighed as he heard a fight down the street, between groups of kids by the sound of it. It brought up unpleasant memories, and he didn't bother shoving them away.

He remembered the first days, when he had been so scared and always hungry and cold and dirty. It had seemed like a miracle when Solo had found him. Suddenly he had food, as little as it had been, and warmth as they all slept in a huddle in whatever shelter they had found. Solo had taught him to fight, to run and to steal. Even Heero's training hadn't been more thorough or effective than his.

After that life had been a big adventure. Even though it was hard, it was _good_ hard. They had been a good gang, looking out for each other. They had been family.

It was something that Duo missed these days. Except for Quatre and Hilde, the former "warriors of peace and freedom" weren't exactly a touchy-feely bunch. But that was ok, if they had been, they wouldn't be the same people who had come to mean so much to him. Even if it would be nice to get a hug a little more often.

Duo turned onto his side, away from Trowa's sleeping form, and curled into himself, trying to hide. He felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes. It had been a long time before he had been able to even think about "life before Deathscyth" without feeling his chest seize up and the threat of uncontrolled sobbing. Now, he was able to remember his loved ones without having a complete emotional breakdown. He sniffed quietly as he heard the fight down the street take a turn for the worse. He wondered if they would find any dead children outside.

Apparently he wasn't the only one.

He felt more than heard Trowa move. The fight had probably woken him. Duo took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh, collecting himself, summoning the will to leave his bed and do the right thing. A tentative hand settled on his back, right between his shoulder blades. His attention centered on the warmth emanating from Trowa's hand, and he hesitated.

"Shall we go attempt damage control?" There was just a hint of dark humor in Trowa's voice. It was an eerie echo of Duo's own mood.

"Yep, or the cops'll just leave 'em there." It was a sad L2 truth. At least the cops wouldn't finish the job anymore. There was even a clinic not far away that had nothing to do with the colony big-wigs. Duo was out of bed and into street cloths and boots by the time Trowa had gotten the emergency bag and his own clothing. He nodded for Duo to go ahead.

"Meet you there." His voice was soft, compassionate and Duo felt himself smiling back at his friend as he jogged down the street.

There were dirty little bodies sprinting in every direction, all of them were out of sight by the time Duo got to the mouth of the alley. There were three kids down, two girls and a boy. The older girl was moaning softly, but the two younger children were absolutely still. Duo stopped at the younger girl, searching her throat for a pulse, not finding one he switched to her wrist. With no luck, he left her and moved to the boy's side just as Trowa came up behind him. He nodded towards the other girl and Trowa moved to her side. Another moan, louder this time, told them that she was still conscious, and Trowa reassured her.

"It's ok, we're going to help you. Just lie still." Trowa's voice was still quiet and gentle. Duo had found the boy's pulse and the gash in his side that was his most serious looking injury. 

Duo tried not to notice that the kid was about the same age Solo had been. He tried not to remember that rattle of Solo's last breaths, so like the sound coming from the boy now. Then his pilot training kicked in with the adrenaline and he didn't have to try anymore.

He opened the emergency bag and tossed one of the med-kits to Trowa and opened the other one. He used a hand wipe to clean around the gash, spritzed antiseptic on it and covered it with a gauze pad that was quickly taped into place. Heero would have been proud of his efficiency. He did a quick check for broken bones, paying particular attention to the neck, spine and ribs. Nothing felt wrong and they could worry about everything else once they were at the clinic. He turned to Trowa.

"He's ok to move, how about her?" Trowa tossed back the med-kit. 

"Let's go."

Duo repacked the bag and slung it so that it hung against his butt with the strap across his chest. Slinging the boy over his shoulder so that the gash was pressed against his neck instead of his arm, he paused for two breaths to determine that everything stayed stable. Then he turned to look at Trowa.

Trowa had the girl in front of him with an arm under her knees and the other around her back. Duo raised an eyebrow at the traditionally hero/damsel-in-distress pose.

"Belly wound." Ah.

They made the trek to the other side of Duo's subdivision as quickly as they could without drawing attention to themselves. Duo prayed that Leslie would be there with every second breath his cargo took.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing that Trowa noticed about the clinic was that it was like a field hospital. The second thing was the tiny brick house at the center of the tent complex. They reached the first tent, with Duo shouting "Leslie!" at the top of his lungs. The call was answered by a short, wiry woman with gray hair and sharp light blue eyes. She quickly took control of the situation, calling out orders and bustling between Duo, Trowa and their patients. Trowa hoped that they hadn't made anything worse by not stopping to make stretchers. Then the chaos of an emergency room engulfed them.

The children were taken away, both he and Duo were pushed off to the side. They just stood, watching everything move around them, even at this late hour. After a moment Trowa knew that he would need to either speak or give into his impulse to hold Duo. His friend was looking very fragile in the lamp light coming from the tents. He decided that speaking would have fewer ramifications.

"So, what now?" Duo turned to look at him, the ghost of a smile already on his face.

"That would be the eternal question wouldn't it? In this case, we stick around long enough for the quick news, then go home. Maybe we'll be able to call someone about the body before morning, maybe not." He shrugged and looked back towards the tent. "I just want to know if they'll make it through the night, y'know?" Indigo eyes glanced at Trowa, wide and filled with some unnamed pain. Trowa nodded, indicating that he understood.

They paced in front of the tent, waiting for some sign. Occasionally someone would need their help moving something, but the next thirty minutes were eerily quiet. Duo didn't speak unless spoken to, and Trowa wasn't sure how to start a conversation with him when he was like this. So they were silent.

A child shouted Duo's name from the tent entrance, getting the attention of both of them. Duo was half-way to him before the child gave the thumbs up sign and disappeared back into the tent. Duo stopped mid-stride, then spun around to look at Trowa. A hesitant smile spread across his face, then turned into a full blown grin.

Trowa felt himself smiling back, and was soon caught up in a pair of strong arms as Duo gave him an elated hug. Then Duo let go and grabbed their bag.

"Let's go home and see if there's anything else we can do."

"Of course Duo." He knew that his voice sounded breathless, but he didn't care. Duo was happy, and that's all that mattered. They walked home, Duo bouncing around with the remnants of the adrenaline rush, and Trowa storing the feeling of Duo's arms around him in his long-term memory. Not to mention savoring the sensation.

It had been so different and yet the same as his dream-Duo's embrace. Trowa resisted the urge to laugh at the thought that he _had_ a dream-Duo. They arrived back at Duo's house quickly, just in time to see the coroner's van pull away. The young girl's body was gone.

Trowa didn't ask what would happen to the body, and Duo's energy and tentative good-mood vanished.

"So, are we officially up for the day, or should we try to get some more sleep?" Trowa was startled out of his thoughts by Duo's tired voice.

"More sleep. You're tired and it won't be morning for hours." Duo nodded, pulling off his boots and letting them clunk to the kitchen floor. His eyes looked almost black in the half-light and his face was drawn. Trowa didn't know how to comfort him, Quatre hadn't gotten that far in his advice on dealing with people. Not that the panic had let Trowa absorb much.

Quatre had caught him completely off guard by starting a conversation with: "So, have you wooed Duo yet?" In retrospect, Trowa thought that it might not have been such a good idea to tease Cathy about her crush on his blond friend. The words "wooed" and "courted" had made it into everyday conversation _way_ too often after that.

Looking at Duo now, he appreciated Quatre's efforts. The beautiful man was standing at the doorway to the bedroom, leaning on the frame and staring off into space. His face was shadowed by his bangs, and his expression was unreadable. He didn't react as Trowa walked up behind him, giving evidence to the conclusion that he must be more tired than Trowa had originally thought.

Hesitantly Trowa put a hand in the middle of his back, his fingers brushing the braid. Duo jumped slightly, but turned to shoot him a quick, tired smile.

"Get some sleep Duo." He got another smile as Duo ambled away. Trowa just stood there for a long moment, staring off into space, much as Duo had been. The palm of his hand tingled slightly and he could have traced exactly where Duo's hair had come in contact with his skin. It felt like an electric shock, g-force burst and a coffee buzz all at once. He knew that if he had been anyone else he would have had a silly smile on his face. Any more sensations like this one and he may just get one anyway.

Suddenly a pale hand waved in front of his eyes and his focus snapped to Duo, who was standing in front of him with a worried twist to his lips.

"C'mon, you need sleep too Tro." With that Duo grabbed his hand and pulled him into the bedroom. And that was all in the encounter that had any resemblance to Trowa's later, private, thoughts.

Fortunately it was too dark to tell that he was blushing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continued in part six_


	6. Unfair Treatment

The Urchin: Part Six

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week passed before Duo noticed that they had fallen into an odd sort of domestic pattern. Duo was the only person he had ever met that didn't have anything to complain about in his roommate. Trowa was even more compatible with him than Heero. More than once Trowa had started a conversation that had no information-conveying value whatsoever.

It had surprised Duo to find that the man had a gift for idle chit-chat. Before, Trowa hadn't said anything that wasn't important. Now, he was saying things that seemed only to fill the silence. Duo also noticed that these odd conversations only happened when the silence was getting to Duo himself, and at other times Trowa was content to just let him babble without telling him to shut up, or walking away. Duo found that he liked these times a lot, no matter whose turn it was to talk the other's ear off. The other day, Leslie had even said that it was cute.

They had gone to check on the two kids. The girl had been picked up by one of the rescue missions and taken to a hospital on another colony. They had never discovered her name.

The boy was well on his way to a full recovery, and the resemblance to Solo only increased when he was awake. His name was Benjamin, and he had attached himself to Trowa. It would take an entire emergency tent staff to keep him in bed when Duo and Trowa left.

"Cute kid." It came out a little sarcastically as they left for the evening, but Duo could tell that Trowa had heard the sincerity. 

"Yeah. He seems like he's a fighter, good at surviving, has a killer sense of humor." Trowa turned to look at him with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Not like anyone else we know of course."

Duo grinned. "Of course."

It was still a thrill to see an answering humor in Trowa's eyes. Still, ha! It had only been a week, but it felt like forever, and yet it was still new. He had trouble imagining what life had been like without Trowa, and yet memory would remind him all too quickly. Trowa was a happy moment now.

Duo prayed that he would be more than a moment. Another glance behind him revealed Ben sitting at the entrance of the tent watching them leave, a nurse fussing at him. For a second Duo saw the wrong face on the boy, and it was Solo sitting there. The vision was gone the next heartbeat, and he knew it for what it was.

That didn't make it any easier. He waved good-bye to the boy with a grin on his face, and received a wave in return. As he turned back around he caught Trowa's eye, and they nodded. They continued home in silence.

For once the evening was uneventful. Duo even had time to re-order supplies. It was exhausting supplying care packages to the various child-gangs in the neighborhood, but he figured it was worth it just knowing that the kids wouldn't starve to death.

That had been the call that started the whole thing. Leslie had told him that children were starving and her resources were running out. And the manipulative old woman had played the trump card.

"It's not as if there's a Father Maxwell around here anymore taking care of them." 

He had started planing the second the sentence had left her mouth.

So here he was, alone in a house with Trowa Barton playing Father to an army's worth of hungry mouths. Duo sighed to himself, and tallied the new supplies. As expected, the first aid and food stuffs were going fastest. He suspected that the kids were selling one and gorging on the other. Not that he could blame them, it's what he would've done when he was their age.

Trowa had the news on the radio in the other room. A TV would have ensured a break-in. So far it was all boring political stuff that he was sure Quatre and Relena would fill them in on it later.

Then there was a "special bulletin"

"We interrupt your regular programming to announce that the investigation into the vandalism at the Governor's mansion has been concluded without satisfactory answers. Authorities have concluded that the violence was caused by one or more of the child-gangs terrorizing the warehouse district. Being unable to determine which gang is responsible, the authorities have issued a mandate. All children found without proof of a home address will be detained, and shipped off to half-way houses. ID's will be issued to all minors during regular business hours at neighborhood precincts. 

We now return to your regularly scheduled program."

Duo found himself staring in shock at the wall behind his kitchen sink. He had known about the vandalism in the high-class neighborhoods, but had seen no connection with the kids living there in the warehouse district. They had all been too busy selling first-aid supplies and wolfing down peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches.

Vaguely he heard Trowa turn off the radio and walk up behind him. He spoke before the taller man could.

"There isn't even a neighborhood precinct _here_, let alone anyone with the money to pay for all those ID's at twenty credits a pop."

"Or a home address for everyone."

Duo spun around and was caught in sad, green eyes. Trowa realized the implications of this mandate only slightly less than Duo did. And that was because Duo hadn't shared much of his street memories with his friend.

"It gets worse, I think. At least, it gets worse unless somebody changed the foster-care system around." Trowa frowned, and looked down at Duo's hands. Duo followed his gaze, and saw that he was shaking.

"Sit down Duo, and give yourself a moment to get collected. I'll make tea, then you can tell me what you think I need to know." Trowa lead him to a chair and pushed him into it before turning away to put on the kettle. Duo took deep breaths, mostly so he could inhale around the sudden swelling of his heart. Trowa understood how hard it was to share his past, and accepted that he probably wasn't going to share everything. If Duo hadn't loved him before, he had fallen now.

Trowa sat down opposite him, handing him a mug of very hot chamomile tea. Quatre had sent it a little while ago "as a calming influence." This was the first time that Duo felt he really needed it.

"When I was little, everything wasn't nearly so organized around here. The gang and I were squatting in a warehouse about three blocks down the street. It was one of the only ones without holes in the roof, so we were comfortable there. The only clinics that we knew of were those large white and steel buildings uptown. We never went near them, because we would tell each other these kind-of ghost stories about them. You know the 'and anyone who goes near the place vanishes, never to be seen alive again' type of stories. Because that's the way it was. Kids would go in, carried between two cops, and the next time we saw them was dead in an alley on our side of town with strange stuff around them. Now I know that they were hospital bracelets and tourniquet tubes and such. But the first time I saw those on anybody living was when I was with G, years later."

Duo nearly laughed remembering his reaction to the first physical G's doctor had put him through. That had been the first time G had acknowledged that Shinigami may indeed exist.

"Anyway, the point is, that these kids I knew didn't walk through those doors willingly. Not even one was stupid enough to fall for the promise of free food and medicine. Hell, we barely knew what medicine was. Usually the poor fools would get dragged away under some semblance of a social services program. They would come into the neighborhood, claiming that they were going to clean the place up by finding us all homes. It only took one round-up for us to figure out that we didn't want to get caught."

Trowa's eyes were wide and bright when Duo dared to look up again. Duo felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. He didn't want to be pitied.

"What happened to tip you off?" Looking up again, Duo saw something in Trowa's gaze that he hadn't seen since Father Maxwell's death. He had never figured out what that look meant, just that it wasn't anything bad. 

"We watched them cart kids off. A week later we found them in the gutter. We didn't stick around to find out what the spin doctors did with it." 

Trowa reached across the table and touched the back of Duo's hand. Duo realized that he had his mug in a death grip. Trowa snuck a couple of fingers between Duo's mug and his palm, trying to loosen his hold.

"It's alright Duo. Even if the goons here are stupid enough to ignore the Earth-Sphere Alliance mandates, they aren't good enough to get anything past the two of us. We won't let them continue their practices."

"I'm glade you said that, because they _are_ that stupid, and I _am_ going to stop them. It's nice to know that I'm going to have some help."

Trowa graced him with a slight smile, and Duo felt himself grinning, his emotions back in the less-depressing range. For the first time in a long time he felt like everything was going to be alright.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa watched Duo's eyes brighten, and knew that he had chosen the right words to express his intent. He glanced down at their joined hands. Well, he amended, half his intent. The tea had cooled so that it wouldn't burn their mouths, but neither touched it. 

He could tell that remembering had been difficult for Duo, and that he had only shared a small piece of the whole. That he may never share the whole. And that was alright, because Duo now knew that he _could_ share if he ever felt the need.

Trowa's smile stayed in place as they shared a comfortable silence, listening to the neighborhood hum outside their walls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

continued in part seven


	7. Temporary Solution

The Urchin: Part Seven

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day found them rounding up available funds from some of Duo and Trowa's "war chests", as Duo had called them. Between distributing food and asking around about police, there was little else they could do.

Between the two of them they still couldn't get the kind of money they needed for ID's on such short notice, and they had no idea what to do about the "home address" angle.

The word had gotten out to the kids, both about the mandate and that Duo and Trowa were trying to help. Some even brought mail that was being delivered to abandoned buildings, giving some leeway with the ID requirements.

It wasn't enough, but it was a start. Two days before deadline, only half of the neighborhood kids had ID's. Leslie and her staff had helped out by taking kids to precincts all over town and acting like concerned parents. The places were so swamped that nobody noticed that the same little old lady was bringing in different children three times a day. At least, Duo _hoped_ they were too busy to notice.

Benjamin had been one of the first, and one of ten to have Duo's home address on their ID cards. The kid had taken that as an invitation, and when his clinic bed was needed, he moved onto Duo's couch, which moved Trowa back onto the second futon in Duo's room. Once, Duo commented that maybe he shouldn't have bothered moving when the boxes got cleared out.

Trowa had replied by asking the braided one if he had any extra futons for the other nine children. It had been fun watching Duo rush around in a panic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo was absently chewing on some beef jerky, watching Trowa and Ben try to organize lunch with the next-door rugrats. He was supposed to be coming up with a brilliant plan to get ID's for the rest of the kids, but so far all he had thought of was that Trowa looked absolutely gorgeous in the fake-twilight.

He shook his head to clear it, silently berating himself for inappropriately-timed drooling.

As far as he could tell, they needed at least two more permanent addresses and over two-hundred credits. The last round of children had nearly bled his resources dry, and the deadline was tomorrow. There wouldn't be enough time for him to transfer the funds from his sealed accounts. He banged his forehead on the table, and let it stay there, trying to get himself to think. He was moving to bang his head again when a quiet voice interrupted him.

"Don't do that. Giving yourself a concussion won't help anybody." He looked up and met Trowa's deep green eyes, shaded with concern. It made his heart leap and a cold stone drop into the pit of his stomach.

"I just don't know what to do. The deadline's tomorrow and there aren't any more mailing addresses in this area, and I only have forty credits left." He felt proud of himself for keeping the whine out of his voice, even if it didn't fool Trowa.

"Then we call in the big guns."

"I know, we should be getting Quatre, Relena and them into the picture, but too much attention is bad. They'll be looking very close at everything in the neighborhood, and that could put the kids in danger." He felt helpless, and he hated feeling helpless.

"So we call Quatre and Wufei, and tell them to be covert."

Duo opened his mouth to point out how that wouldn't work...and closed it again when he couldn't think of anything. After a moment he opened it again.

"It's so simple, it can't possibly have been that simple." He looked back up at Trowa's eyes and said the first thing that came to mind. "Why the _hell_ didn't I think of that!"

He felt a grin stretch his face and knew he was showing off all of his pearly-whites. Then he bounced out of his chair and over to his friend, throwing his arms around his tall friend and planing an enthusiastic kiss on his mouth. All without realizing what he had done, he let go and bounced away, muttering to himself.

"Beautiful genius, that is _brilliant!_ I'm going to go call Quatre." And he left to do just that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa found himself standing alone and in shock in the middle of the kitchen. His lips tingled, and he was finding it hard to breathe.

Well, he hadn't expected _that_.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continued in part eight_


	8. Quatre

The Urchin: Part Eight

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quatre was muttering some of his best and favorite curses when he answered the phone. Duo just grinned and hoped that the blond wasn't muttering at him.

That hope was answered when Quatre looked at the screen and stopped mid-word and smiled brightly instead.

"Duo! Hello, how are you?"

"Fine Q, but I'm calling for a kind-of emergency favor. I was hoping you could help me."

"Anything. Are you in trouble? Do you need me there?" The look in Quatre's eyes was a mix of concern and glee that threw Duo off-balance for a moment. He paused, and reassessed the situation, trying to answer Quatre truthfully, and tease him.

"You're dealing with lawyers again, aren't you?" Quatre looked down and then back up, an abashed smile on his face.

"That obvious, hmm?"

"Only to those who know and can blackmail you my friend. Anyway, about my problem. The 'governing forces' here on L2 are issuing ID's to all of the kids, home addresses are required, and charging money for them. Trowa and I are taking care of the orphans in this sector, but we've run out of addresses and have only half the amount of money we need in the easy-access accounts. I can't just hack into the bank computers and transfer my own funds anymore, so I was wondering if you had any suggestions, or owned property on this colony that we could put on the paperwork."

Duo hated asking for favors, it just drove home the fact that he wasn't infallible, and that lesson had gotten more than it's fair share of class-time. He watched Quatre go deep in thought for a moment, then turn his attention to the computer on his desk. Some quick typing and scrolling, then he got an enlightened expression on his face. Quatre was the only person that Duo had ever met that got a serene look at finding an answer, rather than shouting 'Eureka!' like a normal person.

"WEI does have property on L2, a small residence it looks like. One of my sister's in-laws sold it to us so that they could move to Earth without going into debt. Will the one be enough?" Duo nodded, dumbstruck once again by Quatre's resources and willingness to share them. "Is you're laptop on?" Duo nodded again, "Good, I'll send the information to you. I'm also transferring three hundred credits from WEI's human resources department to you're account. Get the company logo on the kids' IDs, that should give the police second thoughts. Use the rest for whatever supplies they need."

Duo was speechless, and he felt tears in his eyes. He resisted the urge to blink them away, knowing that having Quatre see them would express the depth of his gratitude better than words could. From the answering tears in Quatre's eyes, there was mutual feeling.

"Quatre, you are an amazing person, you know that? Remind me to tell you about Father Maxwell and Sister Helen someday. You guys would have gotten along great."

Quatre nodded, seemingly overcome. He took a couple of deep breaths, and collected himself.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Not right now Q. This mandate is shit and everybody knows it, but we needed to take care of the effects first. Tro and I are going after the source later, maybe next week. I'll call you then, just in case we need quick back up."

"Anything for you, my friend. Be safe, and give them hell for me, alright?"

"Sure thing Q. Give everyone there a raspberry for me, especially Hilde. I still haven't properly congratulated her on the new job."

Quatre laughed and promised. They signed off, and Duo sat back in his chair, feeling lighter than he had in years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa covertly listened to Duo and Quatre, smiling softly to himself. Benjamin caught him eavesdropping, but decided to join him instead of tipping Duo off. They both leaned back when the call ended, Trowa feeling pride in his friends, and Benjamin with wide eyes and an unbelieving look on his face.

"What does he want us to do to pay him back?" The question from the boy took Trowa by surprise, but only for a second. He sometimes forgot that not everybody was immediately aware that Quatre was an angel in disguise.

"Nothing. He's funny that way." Duo answered, looking down at Benjamin's wide gray eyes and grinned the happiest grin Trowa had seen in ages. Ben obviously didn't believe him.

"Maybe he'll ask later," the boy muttered and walked away, leaving Duo chuckling softly and Trowa gazing up at his friend from his position on the floor.

"What?" Duo asked, turning his full attention on Trowa, who was lost in laughing indigo depths. It was becoming a bad habit. He had to look away in order to answer.

"I remember being that suspicious. I think it was actually Quatre who broke me of the habit."

"He is good at that, isn't he? I think he got me to stop it with the 'what's the catch' questions too. He had help though." A sad look crossed Duo's face before fleeing from a smile. "Common, we need to get some more ID's. Do you still have that WEI 'Employee Card' the Quatre gave us during the colony negotiations?"

Trowa took the hand that Duo offered and pulled himself up to stand in front of his friend. "Of course. It's been useful too often to get rid of."

"Good, we need to go pretend to be WEI employees and legal guardians of our poor younger siblings." There was a wicked gleam in Duo's eyes.

"And after we do that?"

"We go figure out who's _really_ doing the vandalism to the houses, and we kick their asses. Then we go point out to the Stones just how stupid they are. Then we get this stupid mandate repealed, and Une gets her Preventer's office on this colony." Trowa could almost see the practical jokes, the break-ins and the fun that Duo was imagining would go along with each step.

"That will take months, if not years." Trowa pointed out, then immediately cursed himself as some of the light left Duo's eyes. He hadn't meant to dampen the other man's feelings.

"Yes, it will, it's worth it though. I was prepared to stay years if I had to. I guess you didn't really understand what you were signing up for." There was a disappointment in Duo's voice and expression, and Trowa felt like scum for having put it there. He had to fix this, _now_.

"That's not what I meant. I meant that maybe we need to get the others in on this at the start. Une would be more than happy to put us on the roster as field agents. That way we get paychecks, which will help keep the supplies coming. Then we'd be able to legally access classified information about the people here, and add to it as time goes on." Duo's eyes had widened as Trowa spoke, hope filtering in until he was smiling brightly. Trowa felt relief flood through him, even as he continued with his mission strategy.

"If we have all the information at the beginning, and pool it as we go along, it could cut months off the time required, not to mention that everyone would be angry at us if we left them out. Especially Heero and Une."

Duo shuddered, and Trowa had to agree. Having those two resentful for being left out was not beneficial to the health of other ex-pilots.

"Ok. I'll call them when we get the last ID's and hack into the police network to get the facts from the vandalism cases."

Trowa nodded, and found himself looking strait at Duo. He realized for the first time that he hadn't cared how long he would be staying. What they were talking about could easily stretch out to a years-long operation. Duo was serious about turning this colony around, no matter how long it took. Looking into himself, Trowa knew that he was here for the long haul. He looked into those beautiful, deep indigo eyes, and saw a lifetime stretch out before him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo didn't know what to make of Trowa's expression. Once the fear of him leaving had passed, Duo had been awed by the clear thinking as Trowa outlined a viable plan. He tried to tap down the joy that was coursing through him with every word that smooth voice said.

Now they were staring at each other silently, and Duo didn't dare move. Slowly, Trowa started leaning towards him, and Duo held his breath. As those green eyes came closer, his own eyes closed and he felt the whisper of a touch as Trowa's lips brushed over his, just once.

The warmth moved away, and his eyes snapped open to see Trowa blushing and looking over his shoulder rather than at him. A heartbeat passed and their eyes met again. Duo was humbled by what he saw in that look.

"I'm here, for as long as you need me. Weeks, months, years, it doesn't matter. I just needed you to know that." With that Trowa moved away, leaving Duo alone with his thoughts.

Said thoughts consisted entirely of:_WOW! He kissed me! He's staying! WOW!_

It was a while before the loop expanded to include anything else. And by then Trowa had everything set up for them to impersonate WEI employees, and the kids rounded up, and cleaned up. All Duo had to do was get his head out of the clouds and back into space where it belonged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continued in part nine_


	9. Heero

The Urchin: Part Nine

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hell did not even begin to describe the last week. Trowa was exhausted as he flopped down onto his futon. Duo was already snoring on the other bed, having collapsed onto it, fully dressed a few minutes ago.

There had been a fire at the clinic, and the emergency teams had only been called in once there was a danger to this sector's oxygen levels. Duo and Trowa had already been on-site for an hour by the time the fire engines showed up.

Neither had said very complimentary things about the boys in tarp.

While Duo's scheme concerning the ID's had worked like a charm, there was now some doubt as to whether they would ever find out who was behind all the inconvenient vandalism. They had hacked into the police database, but the files on the vandalism hadn't been there. Now they were checking all of the other possible places that the records could be. So far they hadn't had much luck.

Trowa tried to force himself to relax, and listened to Duo's breathing. It wasn't the slow, even breathing of deep sleep, but he was asleep. Trowa brought his fingers to his lips, touching the skin. These lips had met Duo's twice, and he still tingled at the memory. He knew his own motives and feelings, but was still unsure of Duo's. Yes, he had kissed him, but seemed to be unaware that he had. Yes, Trowa had kissed him back later in the day, but neither of them had mentioned it. 

Maybe, Duo had acted on a spur of the moment impulse, and didn't want to embarrass Trowa by saying so? Trowa had seen him kiss Hilde often enough, on the cheek, hands, sometimes even a quick peck on her mouth. They all knew for a fact that Duo didn't feel _that_ way about her, so the "just friends" scenario was plausible.

This would have depressed Trowa if he hadn't been catching Duo taking quick glances at him whenever the other man thought he wouldn't notice. They hadn't been wholly curious, nor wholly innocent looks either. Just remembering the gaze that those indigo eyes had shot him earlier that day was enough to make Trowa's blood heat.

Each look, touch, glance, kiss was a memory that Trowa made sure would be locked in his heart until the day he died. Most ended up right next to that dream from weeks ago.

Trowa did turn to look at his friend, who was snoring softly into his pillow, less than three feet away. Taking in the relaxed sprawl of his lean body and the blank facial expression, a part of Towa warned that it would stay a dream if he kept dancing around the issue. It wouldn't do any good to moon over Duo when he was asleep, if Trowa was afraid of saying anything while he was awake.

Trowa sighed and turned away, half-heartedly hoping for another visit from his dream-Duo. Because he had no idea how to go about getting the real one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa returned to the house the next afternoon on his own. He wasn't entirely surprised to find Heero sitting in the kitchen, setting up his laptop. "What raised the red flag?" Trowa asked as he poured himself some orange juice.

"The fingerprints that you ran, after the memorial gala." Heero didn't even look up from the machine, but Trowa paused. He remembered the brash aristocrat bad-mouthing Duo. He also remembered that the only file to show up in his search was the guy's academic record. He hadn't been involved with the wars at all.

"What about them?"

"Between 60 and 48 hours ago, your files became the only record that he ever existed."

The enormity of Heero's statement hit Trowa like a fist to the gut. His mind kicked into a higher gear, running through options he hadn't considered since he destroyed Heavyarms.

Trowa's first conclusion was that he and Duo would need help much sooner than anticipated. "Do the Preventers know?"

"Yes. Wufei has been given the case on low priority status until we know more." Heero finally looked up at Trowa, as if waiting for something. It was then that the taller man noticed the inclusive pronoun.

"We?" Heero shifted in his seat once, but the action screamed his discomfort.

"Quatre called me...after Duo called him. He was worried about you two and some child-gangs taking on the L2 authorities." Heero shrugged as if that explained everything.

"We're not taking on the L2 authorities. Just the government of _this_ colony." Heero looked up sharply at Trowa's tone of voice. Trowa gave a completely internal sigh; it _had_ sounded more like Duo's. Looking his friend in the eye, Trowa hoped that Heero understood that they were taking small steps deliberately. They couldn't just hand the guilty parties over to Une and expect the problem to go away. Heero had to understand that or he would do more harm than good. Fortunately, Trowa was saved from having to start that weighty conversation. 

Seven children poured into the small house, followed by a bedraggled Duo, who was carrying a large postal package. It was obviously from Quatre, given the WEI insignia on the sides. Trowa moved to help his friend, and together they got the box to land with a thud on the kitchen floor. Duo stood, stretching his back and the children laughed at the resulting chorus of popping sounds.

Duo stuck his tongue out at them before turning back to the adults. "Thanks Tro. Hey Heero! What're you doing here?" A bright gleeful grin spread across Duo's face. Heero shrugged casually and waved a hand towards the box.

"Quatre was worried."

To Duo and Trowa that explained everything, but Trowa saw the scowl settle on Ben's pale face. He caught Duo's eye and nodded his head in the boy's direction. Duo followed with his eyes and nodded his agreement. The entire silent exchange went unnoticed by everyone except Heero, whose eyes kept widening through the whole thing. 

Duo smirked at their soldierly friend before leading Ben outside. Trowa was left with six curious children and Heero. He decided to leave the box alone. Quatre knew Duo, and so would send supplies that the ex-thief could use. The children did _not_ need that addition to their education.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Ben, what's the matter?" Duo sat himself down in the front stoop, next to the too-skinny orphan. Ben wouldn't look at him, but stared strait ahead with a worried frown on his face.

"How are we going to pay this Quatre guy back? We don't have anything, so why does he keep helping us?"

Duo sighed, recognizing in Ben some of his own reactions in a similar situation. As much trouble as he had been to the church, he had always done what he thought was fair payback for everything that they gave him. After the first month, Father Maxwell had had a talk with him. Now it was time to see how much of that talk he could reproduce.

"Ben, Quatre is an unusual person. He doesn't think like most people, and certainly not about stuff like this. He's a ... war buddy of mine and Trowa's, so he's helping because he's our friend. And because it's the right thing to do."

Duo noticed that Ben relaxed when he mentioned Quatre's relationship with himself and Trowa, and was glad for it. He knew what Ben's next question would be, and wracked his brain for Father Maxwell's answer in the past.

"Duo... why are you and Trowa helping? We can't pay you back either." 

Duo sighed and leaned back, looking at Ben's thin shoulders and big feet, once again reminded of his friend from long ago. _Screw it,_ he thought, _just tell the truth._

"You don't have to pay us back either. Actually, helping you guys is part of what I want to do to pay someone else back."

Now he had Ben's attention, and the boy finally turned to look at him. It looked like he wasn't moving until the whole sad story came out. Duo sighed again.

"Some of this stuff even Trowa doesn't know yet, so you can't repeat it for a while. Ok?"

"Sure Duo." Duo could see the excitement in Ben's gray eyes at the prospect of knowing a secret.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	10. Dream-Trowa

The Urchin: Part Ten

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heero had outlined the plan of attack, going over which colony officials Duo and Trowa had already checked, and which ones were left. 

Once that was done, the three of them had made dinner for the children, half of which Heero took back to the house that Quatre was loaning them. Apparently, once the last group of children had gotten the WEI logo on their ID's, they had moved into the house as a matter of course. Heero was going to keep an eye on them.

"Who would have thought Heero was such a mother hen?"

"Relena."

Duo rolled his eyes before eating another spoon full of soup. "Besides her! She's got inside info, so she doesn't count."

Trowa smiled without answering, then turned, swiping one of the younger kid's face with a napkin. She beamed at him in return. 

Duo felt a pride and a twinge of deep emotion in his chest as he watched Trowa and the little girl. He felt his smile falter, and let it settle into something a little more wistful than his usual, but it fit better.

Between cleaning up the kitchen, and putting the kids to bed in the living room, Duo and Trowa didn't have much time to talk, let alone plan their next step.

Once the house was quiet, an uneasy silence grew between them as they closed up the house and got ready to sleep.

With the lights out, they lay on their futons, staring up at the ceiling and listening to each other breathe.

Soon, Duo couldn't stand the silence anymore, something in the quality of it driving him to speak. It was an urge that hadn't hit him in ages.

"Trowa?"

"Yes Duo."

"Did you mean it? After you told me you were staying."

"After...? Oh." Duo heard the confusion, then understanding in Trowa's voice. He waited for his answer, hands fisting in his blanket. "Yes Duo. I meant it."

Duo stopped the explosive sigh of relief from bursting out of him, drawing it out into something a little less dramatic.

"Good."

The silence became less tense as Duo turned on his side and went to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa smiled to himself, watching Duo out of the corner of his eye. Well, that answered one of his questions. This wasn't a "just friends" thing. Trowa knew that Duo would talk about it when he was ready, and now that the worst of his own fears had been alleviated, he could wait.

Relaxing, he turned into his pillow, letting sleep claim him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo was floating in a strange fog, and immediately knew that he was dreaming. He hadn't dreamt in so long that the shock of it sent him into awareness. It didn't wake him up however.

As the fog cleared he saw himself reflected in a window, and suddenly felt very self-conscious. Mostly because his hair was down, and his hair was never down for longer than it took him to dry or brush it.

He turned away from the window, not wanting to see how young he looked, wanting to ignore how vulnerable he felt.

Light fingers brushed carefully over the hair at the back of his head, and he jumped two feet forward and spun around. Nobody touched his hair! Angry indigo lifted to meet the most beautiful sight he had ever imagined.

Trowa was smiling gently down at him, those soft bangs still falling over half of his face. The effect wasn't so much concealing here, rather than a little coy. Best of all, Trowa's green eyes were shining with a silent mirth.

Even when Duo got his friend to chuckle at one of his jokes, Trowa's eyes never shone this much. Without really meaning to, Duo found himself smiling widely in response. 

"A little warning next time!" Duo chided with mock anger, not sure whether he wanted to stay where he was and just look, or get closer to this new Trowa.

_Imaginary Trowa. Fake Trowa. He's not real Maxwell, get a grip!_

The sudden thought stole all mirth that Duo had managed to grasp, reminding him that this was a dream, which was why this Trowa was so unlike the Trowa at home.

"Alright Duo. Consider yourself warned." Trowa stated in a warm tone, then he moved across that two feet of space, and pulled a startled Duo into his arms.

Forgetting to resist, forgetting to breathe, Duo could only feel as Trowa's soft lips met his. It was just like that brief touch that he remembered so well, only more. He felt something like electricity run from that contact through his whole body, followed by a rush of heat. Without his consent, his body tried to get closer, tried to get more.

Duo gripped Trowa's shoulders, trying to steady himself, even as he did his damnedest to unbalance them both.

_ Idiot, you can't knock **Trowa** off balance._

They tumbled to the ground. Duo reacted out of instinct, taking the fall on his forearms so that he wouldn't land his whole weight on the taller man. Looking down at that beloved face, once again struck by the happy laughter shining out of those eyes, even as the lips only smiled.

Duo smiled back, and was leaning down for another kiss when something struck him, sending a chill to replace the heat.

_Trowa never makes the first move. Not even to hug his own sister. Even when he kissed me for real, I did it first._

He paused just shy of touching his friend's face, and just looked at his silent partner.

"You're not real." Duo was appalled to hear tears in his voice. The dream-Trowa sighed, some of the mirth leaving, and for a moment he looked more like the real Trowa. Then he leaned up and softly brushed his lips against Duo's forehead.

Then everything disappeared with a sudden, loud buzz.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa threw his pillow at the alarm clock. It clattered to the floor, with the sound of breaking plastic, then was blessedly silent.

A voice came from under Duo's pillow, "Heero had better have a damned good reason for sneaking that in here." The American sounded even more peevish than the usual pre-coffee bad mood.

"He will probably be walking through the front door in ten minutes. He did mention getting an early start." Trowa was trying to finger comb his hair when Duo sat up. The sight of his friend's face made him stop all motion.

There were dark circles under those now-dull indigo eyes, and his skin was pale. A phrase that Trowa had read somewhere came to him suddenly, and it fit the look on Duo's face perfectly.

He looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Heero can kiss my ass. I'm not doing anything until I've had a shower and at least half a pot of coffee." Duo stood, stretching, then ambled away to the first item on his list of demands. This left Trowa wondering if he had missed something important.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seeing his friend this morning, hearing him speak in that toneless, but soft voice, had nearly broken Duo's heart.

Knowing how he felt about Trowa, but desperately wanting an aspect of the man's personality that he wasn't sure existed, was a pain that Duo was unprepared to deal with.

He stood under the hot water, wanting it to wash away this dull yearning that seeing Trowa in the dream had caused. He had never seen Trowa like that in real life. The other man showed nowhere near that much emotion, and only that one moment of interest in Duo himself.

A kiss did not a love-affair make. He had said he meant it, but not _how_ he meant it. Not just friends, because he wasn't the casual touching type, but he knew that Duo _was_. Maybe it had been a gesture to prove to Duo just how serious he was. Anything else could have been misconstrued as harsh, or temporary.

Trowa was not a man of many words, and Duo was a man of too many. Neither put much stock in verbal communication.

So, where did that leave that kiss?

Duo groaned into his wet hair. "I am too fucking tired for this."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continued in part eleven _

_Thanks_

_SilverShinigami_: The sleaze-bags will get theirs, and I'm glad you like my Benjamin. He's the only worth-while character in this story that came out of _my_ brain!

_Seeress_:Sorry you had to read all those chapters at once...you'll have noticed all the typos and plot holes ^_^. 

_Demon_Angel_:The whole thing's written, but I'll post faster, promise!

Jehnihenpen:Cute was half the aim. I'm glad that I succeeded.

_Caer_:I'm glad that you are enjoying the story as well as the pairing. It's often a fine line, so I'm happy that the timing and such works. Thanks so much!

_TasukiNoBaka__:You win the prize for the most comments on this fic to date! 2x3 has been my area of inspiration lately, and I'm glad that you appreciate it, and like the story and everything! I'm getting to the mushy, fluffy, emotional yaoi stuff soon, although, this last chapter is the fluffiest for a bit. Hope you liked it_

_Gemini Tenshi__:Hello to you too! I write tons, and tons and tons, most of which never sees the light of day. I'm glad to know the practice payes off, tell me what you think of the end too!_

_Aini_:I hope that I'm living up to your expactations for this story. Let me know!

_Flat Eric (on the off chance that he didn't flame me for the summary and is reading this)_: If you're going to call me a sick freak, at least respond to a chapter that actually has yaoi in it. Otherwise we know you just went down the list.

_Thanks so much to all of you, and keep reading (and responding ^_~)!_


	11. All In The Know

The Urchin: Part Eleven

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Trowa, do you believe in dream interpretation?" Duo's question was so unexpected that it took a moment for Trowa's mind to catch up.

"Not really. There are too many different methods for me to put stock in any of them."

"So you don't think dreams mean anything?"

"I didn't say that." Trowa looked at his friend over the top of the file he was reading. Duo was chewing his lower lip, and looked like he was scrutinizing something. "Is there something specific bothering you?"

Duo went completely still, then he blushed. Trowa quirked an eyebrow in question, leaving Duo the option of ignoring it or not.

"Yes, but you don't need to worry about it." Duo went back to his own assigned reading with increased, and false, enthusiasm. Trowa puzzled over the short conversation for a few moments. 

Maybe he wasn't the only one falling prey to strange flights of fancy. Judging by the look of Duo this morning, his experience hadn't been as calm or peaceful as Trowa's own. They all knew that nightmares had become the primary scar of the wars, for each of them. The only one who didn't seem to have a problem was Duo. Duo had once said that he didn't dream.

"Duo, I thought you said you never remembered your dreams." It was a deliberate misquote, and Trowa knew that Duo would rise to the bait.

"No. _I_ said that I didn't have dreams. _Sally_ said that I probably just didn't remember them." 

"So why the sudden interest in dream interpretation and meaning?"

There was a long stretch of silence, and Trowa was worried that he had pushed too far, that Duo wouldn't speak again except to change the subject. And he was right, but the new subject wasn't something trivial as he had feared.

"I do realize that I kissed you, you know. I didn't think anything about it at the time, except to be surprised, 'cause Heero would'a decked me, and I always thought you reacted like him sometimes. You know...I meant it too."

And then Duo picked up his files and shuffled out of the house and onto the front stoop with them. This left Trowa staring at an empty kitchen with the beginnings of a grin on his face. It faltered and vanished quickly, but the warm glow of emotion lingered.

It may not be his dream-Duo, but this was at least a step closer to what he wanted with the real one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heero downloaded files from the governmental database while Duo and Trowa were tackling the major players in the private sector. A major pharmaceuticals company and a toy manufacturer had both moved into the area recently. Right before the "vandalism" and subsequent crack- down had started.

None of them knew why a bunch of kids would be so important to any of the obvious parties, but refused to overlook anything. They had all seen too much screwy shit to leave anything to assumption.

Every cop on the colony had gotten a surprise background check, thanks to Wufei. Soon, the board members of the companies would also, though through less official channels. Courtesy of Heero Yuy.

As the file properties ran down the screen, Heero noticed some discrepancies with a couple of personnel files. He mentally tagged those files for careful review. He had yet to figure out if the disappearing playboy had anything to do with the current situation, but after the speech he had given at the gala, Heero wouldn't be surprised if he turned up on the colony.

After going through the files and transferring them to his own database he went back and followed all available pathways from the questionable personnel.

After hours of staring at personal histories, official files, school records, prison records. For the first time since Marimea, Heero was poking around in OZ files.

Nothing came of it. All of the records pointed to ex-soldiers and students with principles but little by the way of money or prospects. In fact, without the Gundam associated skills and mechanical genius, Duo's, Trowa's and his own files would read the same way.

Either there wasn't anything suspicious to find here, or the cover up was very good. Heero wasn't sure where to look next. 

It was an unfamiliar feeling, and he didn't like it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo walked into his kitchen, saw Heero sitting at the table again with a scowl fit to melt gundanium on his face, and promptly turned around to leave again.

"Duo." Multiple dire threats in less than one actual word. Heero's specialty.

"Not until you're calm enough to not scare small children."

"It's important."

"So help me take some supplies to the Clinic. You can tell me after the walk."

"Hn." That would be an agreement in Heeroland.

"Good! Now shake a leg and help me with these boxes."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well Duo! It's about time those supplies got here. Don't your friends in shipping understand the concept of overnight delivery?"

"They love you too Leslie." Duo sent a smile and a wink in her direction. Her blue eyes twinkled in response before she turned to the next crisis-in-the-making.

Heero raised an eyebrow at his braided friend, and received that same grin in return.

"So, Heero. What was so important?" Duo said over his shoulder as he walked into the supply tent.

"Just that I haven't found anything important. It's strange." Heero had to stop to catch his breath before hefting his box on top of the stacked cots.

"You think it's a smokescreen?"

Heero opened his mouth to answer, when he realized that neither he nor Trowa had told Duo about the guy at the gala. Now he wasn't sure if he should.

"Heero?"

Except Duo could read him like a book, and lying would get Duo angry with him.

"There's something we haven't told you." Heero stopped just short of continuing when Duo's eyes widened. He belatedly realized his mistake. He had said "we". If he hadn't been suddenly fearing for his life, Heero would have winced.

"'We'? As in 'I and Trowa'? _That_ kind of 'we'?" Duo's voice got quieter with every question. Heero had always been ready to meet Death at any moment, but hadn't quite given it much thought since the Eve Wars. Now he was staring at eternity in a pair of very pissed indigo eyes, and all he could think was that he was glad he wasn't Trowa.

"Yes. Trowa and I. It didn't seem relevant before. I'm not sure it's relevant now, I haven't asked Trowa what he came up with." Heero had never prayed before, but found himself perilously close to doing so now.

The homicidal light in Duo's eyes faded as he thought about it. Then he turned away. "Alright, you two are forgiven, but you have to keep me up-to-date from now on."

"Hn. At the gala, there was a man, one of the sons of our hosts, and he displayed a strange disparity of knowledge, mostly about you. He knew that you had stolen Deathscyth, but not that I was the one who killed Noventa. He knew where you were from and about Maxwell Church, which _I_ had to look up because _you_ didn't tell anybody. That sort of thing."

Duo was pale, his clenched fists shaking with some deep emotion, probably rage. Heero waited for the storm to pass before saying the last part.

"What does he have to do with us and our work here?"

"Maybe nothing. A few days before I showed up here, he was erased from every computer database everywhere. The only records that he ever existed are on Trowa's laptop. We don't know how it's related, or if it's related, but it's something to be concerned about."

Duo nodded and left the tent without another word or a backwards glance. Heero stared dumbstruck at the tent flap for a moment before following.

He hadn't thought that Duo would be that affected.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continued in part twelve_


	12. Missing

The Urchin: Part Twelve

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo knew that he was overreacting. He _knew_ it, but he couldn't help it. The thought that someone may have been poking around where they didn't belong, that they had gotten to his records, was making him boil over. 

There was only one copy of his personal files, mostly medical history and things that could contribute to medical problems in the future. Especially mental medical problems. And he _knew_ G was aware of the consequences of sharing all that information with _anybody_ without a damned good reason.

And _never_ without asking Duo first.

Duo took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. He couldn't blow the old man's lab to Kingdom Come without getting all the facts. It may have been a break in...Duo's records were all hard- copy. It may have been a snooping assistant, in which case the explosives would go to another location. There were lots of possibilities. 

Telling himself this, Duo stalked to his motorcycle and drove out to G's local base of operations. Even if the psycho himself wasn't there, they would know how to reach him.

Speeding away, Duo imagined all the lovely things he was going to do to the bad guys when he caught them. And few that he'd do to his dear, banged friend for keeping this tidbit of information from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa walked in to find Heero at the kitchen table ... again.

"Is it good news this time?" He was hoping it was. He and Duo were supposed to go to dinner with one of the local gangs. Duo had talked them into actually sitting at the tables in a fast food place, and eating on-premises. It had taken a week.

"I told Duo." Heero's voice was it's usual monotone, but it sounded unusually subdued.

"About the guy at the gala?" Heero nodded. "Did he threaten us with the wrath of Shinigami?" Trowa felt the urge to tap his foot while he waited for Heero to finish thinking about it. It was a ludicrous impulse anyway.

"Not exactly. He's mad at us...really mad at you." With that Heero stood up and prepared to leave. Trowa felt his blood run cold at the though of Duo _really_ mad at him.

"Where did he go?"

Heero shrugged. "Probably to see if_he_ could find anything. He knows we couldn't." Heero walked out of the door before Trowa could ask another question. 

"Coward." Trowa hissed under his breath. Heero wasn't really, but he had just acted like one. Trowa didn't want to be the only one here when the light of his life came back. Duo was scary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo decided to circumvent all the nasty security precautions that went with walking through the front door, and just broke into G's lab. 

It was deserted, which in and of itself had his instinctual alarms ringing. This was _not_ good. G would have told him of he was relocating the important stuff. Like Duo's files. And G wouldn't have just mailed them, he knew how much tampering happened to official-looking documents in the postal system. Bored spies were a bad thing.

Duo wandered around the warehouse, noting which pieces of equipment were missing and which were still here. Funny, the ones that were still here were the ones that G liked the most, but not the ones he used the most often.

Taking one more look around, and feeling the anger bubbling within him again, Duo found a side-console and set up the back-up security system. Nobody was touching anything until he figured out what was going on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa was going through the latest set of files they had "acquired" when Duo slammed into the house.

"This is so screwy and I want to know what's going on!" He stormed into the kitchen and stopped directly opposite Trowa. The look in the other man's eyes made Trowa very glad that the kitchen table was between them.

"What happened?" He kept his voice calm and even, hoping that it would encourage Duo to calm down...before any furniture was broken.

"G's lab had been abandoned, but not by choice. 'Cause if he had been in charge of their leaving, he would have taken the stuff with him! And now I don't know where he is, who has him, what they want with him, and how the HELL did that guy get a look at my files!"

Duo had to stop to take a breath, and Trowa used the pause to try and figure out what Duo was talking about. The only part he was sure of was the last, and it obviously was what Duo was really worried about. They all knew that the old guys could take care of themselves.

Trowa closed down the program he was using and pulled up what he had gotten about the guy at the gala. Without a word, he turned his laptop so that Duo could see the screen and pushed the whole thing across the table to his friend.

"Maybe you will see something we didn't." He stood to leave as Duo sank into a chair and looked over the information.

He would see where this lead them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Martin Gibraltar. Son of Steven and Heather Gibraltar. Has much money and nothing to do.

_This_ was the guy who thought he could get away with talking dirty behind Shinigami's back? This was the guy who got his files away from G? It was unbelievable.

"Now I know why the guys didn't think to tell me. This is nuts." Duo whispered to himself as he went over they guy's info again. He knew he wouldn't have believed them if Trowa and Heero had told him that this guy was a threat. And what did that say about him?

Duo shifted uncomfortably before closing the files. He needed to go find Trowa. It was time to take the kids to dinner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continued in part thirteen_


	13. Deathscyth

The Urchin: Part Thirteen

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo had been quiet during dinner. Not a depressed quiet, but quiet, only speaking when spoken to. Though, most of the speaking had been joking around with the kids.

Trowa knew that Duo's behavior was at least in part because of his omitting Martin Gibraltar. Fortunately, Duo wasn't completely ignoring him, and even smiled at him once in a while, so he knew that the other man couldn't be too angry. Or there was something else going on.

After they had packed the kids away to their own current "homes" and settled in for the night, Trowa lay on his futon so that he was looking strait at Duo. Duo avoided his gaze.

"I'm sorry." Trowa hadn't realized that he was going to speak until the words were out of his mouth. Though, they seemed to have been the right words, as Duo turned to look at him with those wide indigo eyes. Point for the subconscious. 

"It's ok Tro. After looking at that file, I can see that I wouldn't have given him serious-threat status. It wasn't until all the stuff this afternoon, with not finding G and everything."

"Why did you want to talk to G right away? I know he has his sources, but yours are probably better. People trust you."

Duo smiled slightly at the last comment before answering. "He's the only guy who has my file, which is the only place that the info Gibraltar was spouting off could have come from. His base being cleaned out the way it was has me worried, but you couldn't have helped that either."

They both sighed and turned to look at the ceiling, lost in thought. Soon Trowa gave up trying to puzzle out the situation with Gibraltar and Duo's records and the kids. He turned his attention to the strange conversation that had begun the day.

Duo asking about dream interpretation. Duo saying that the kiss had meant something. It had made Trowa's heart leap, and the feeling hadn't all disappeared while he was fearing Duo's wrath. Not that he thought his friend would hurt him, but he didn't really like the idea of going the next two months with blue or pink hair. And changing his hair color was a very Duo way of getting even.

His own dream had lead to his showings of affection. Could Duo's mind be giving him the same message? Only one way to find out.

"Duo?"

"Hmm?"

"Why did you ask about dreams this morning?"

There was a long pause, and Trowa thought that Duo wasn't going to answer him. Then the other man gave a big sigh and turned back on his side so that they faced each other.

"I had this weird dream about you last night. The first dream I've had since I got Deathscyth. They all went away after that. I just..." He stopped and shifted uncomfortably. Trowa wanted to reach out to him, but didn't want to break whatever trust had been established. "I wanted to know what it meant. Why were you my first dream? Why wasn't it some nightmare about the kids and the church and the universe going to hell? I hear you guys talking about those dreams you have, and I wonder what's wrong with me that I don't have them too. Instead, I get this weirdo dream about having my hair down, which _never_ happens, and you smiling like I've only ever seen on Quatre's face." Duo sighed again, looking down at his blanket, smoothing out the wrinkles.

"Smiling, hmm?" Trowa couldn't help teasing his friend a little. It sounded a lot like his dream. Instead of having a hair-related vulnerability, his reflection had been alone. And he then had held Duo.

"Yeah, you were smiling. Actually, you were smirking sorta, but your eyes were smiling." The breathy quality of Duo's voice conveyed more to Trowa's heart than he thought possible.

"Actually, I had a weird dream about you too. You didn't have a reflection." Duo looked back up at him, and the sudden laughter in his eyes was the only warning Trowa got.

"This wasn't some horror-erotic necking vampire dream was it?"

Trowa threw his pillow, smacking Duo in the chest. Duo whapped him upside the head with a pillow I return. If they hadn't been synthetic-cotton pillows, there would have been feathers flying about the room. The pillow fight lasted until "dawn".

Trowa knew that he hadn't laughed so hard in his entire life. It made the muscles on his stomach hurt more than any number of sit-ups ever had. And he wouldn't have traded that night for anything, not even his wildest dreams.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo started the next day dead tired, and happier than he had been in a long time. Something had changed with the half-conversation last night, and he was anxious to see what it had changed to.

After coffee, Heero, Trowa and the kids all helped him come up with ways to find G. Hopefully they would have some idea what was going on by the end of the day.

Heero and one gang were going to the ritzy neighborhoods, posing as a school group taking surveys. Duo nearly laughed at the idea of Heero coaxing information rather than demanding it. The kids all had instructions not to let the former Gundam pilot terrorize anyone, no matter how much they deserved it.

Trowa was going to the clinic, to see if anyone from the lab had made it there. Leslie would know who they were on sight, after all, G had helped her set up the place.

More kids were going from place to place with a picture of G, trying to see if anybody gave it a second glance. They would follow the suspicious ones, but not give them any trouble.

Duo was going to do what he did best: sneak around and give the bad- guys hell. Starting back at the old lab, he would do the detective thing and figure out where everyone had gone. Talking to the old contacts and helpers was bound to be fun.

They finished breakfast and split up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo searched the warehouse from top to bottom, hoping that someone had left him a note or clue or something. No such luck, but he did find that even the machines that were still here had been moved recently. Long scratches ran along the floor, but hadn't been covered in dust and dirt yet. Duo knew that the secret compartments in the walls had been cleared out too, and that disturbed him more than he cared to admit.

The compartments that he had helped G install were even more of a secret than the Gundam had been. The one on the far left corner, opposite the door had been where Duo and G's records had been kept, along with the blueprints to Deathscyth, the original.

Suddenly this was no longer just about Duo's past, and some idiot mouthing off, or even a disappearing professor. This was about someone having the plans for a weapon of mass destruction. The plans to _his_ Deathscyth.

"God damn it! Why can't we ever get a bad-guy who _doesn't_ want a Gundam."

Duo ran to call Une, it was time to call in the big guns.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heero was ready to kill someone, although he refrained from telling anybody that. The kids were looking at him warily, and seemed to be debating whether they should actually try to calm him down, or leave the rich boobs to their fate.

Heero knew that the decision boiled down to what Duo and Trowa would be happier with. So he knew that he wasn't going to kill anyone.

They had been walking around for hours, asking carefully guarded questions about what people thought of the makers of the Gundams, what people thought about having one of them here on the colony. Things like that.

There had been a great deal of venom towards G, and glowing praises for the pilots. Heero had been torn between growling at their opinion of the mechs themselves, and snapping because these people were idiots for thinking that the pilots would forget the abandonment in the middle of the war.

Neither reaction was good for getting answers willingly out of people.

"I think the builders were great! I mean, without the Gundams we wouldn't have survived all that nonsense with Oz. It would have helped if all the pilots were a good as 01, but I suppose if you get a pilot from _this_ colony, you can't be too picky."

It was the same voice, and the ass was talking about Duo on the pilot's home turf. Several of the children glared at the man, right along with Heero. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and a little girl, Marien, was asking the man more questions, so that Heero could get a good look at him.

"What about the builder from this colony. Wasn't he good?"

"Yes he was, but he isn't from here. He wouldn't have been a genius if he was from _here_. It isn't the people's fault that this place is incapable of supporting the best and the brightest. That's just the way it is. If you want someone competent, you need to look elsewhere. That's where the Professor failed with 02."

It was Gibraltar, looking very pleased with himself, and preening as he shared his inside information. The man was only a little taller than Heero, and not nearly as tall as Trowa, or even Duo had gotten, and pudgy. He was glowing with the attention he was getting for all his insight, and it made Heero sick, until he analyzed what the bastard had said.

"The Professor." Heero whispered to himself, anger overwhelming him. The poof in front of him had G, and Duo's records and was using them for some selfish fantasy of his own.

Only a small hand on his arm kept him from storming over and making the man talk. Heero looked down into Ben's eyes, and saw an echo of his own anger. He knew that the boy only knew a portion of what was going on, but understood enough to realize that the man was hurting, or planning to hurt Duo in some way.

Heero leaned down, as if reassuring the boy, and whispered in his ear. "Follow him. Stay invisible, and then go tell Duo where he went." Ben nodded and disappeared into an alley behind where Gibraltar was standing.

Heero was going to see to it that this whole mess was ended, soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa hadn't had any luck, except that Leslie had needed his help when he got there. He had spent the day up to his elbows in scrapes, cuts, concussions and bloody-noses.

It was an apt reminder that normal chaos didn't stop just because they were having a crisis.

As the "sun" set, he trudged into the house and was greeted by a totally new chaos. There were many children, and they were sitting quietly watching Duo and Wufei talk. Heero was growling at someone on the vid-phone, and there was computer equipment everywhere. Une had obviously given Wufei the assignment as a priority. He had gotten here quickly.

Trowa was about to ask what was going on when Ben ran in through the door behind him, drawing Heero's attention.

"Where is he Ben?" Whoever was on the vid-phone screen snapped something at Heero before cutting the line.

"At the big house, at the end of Brussels Lane."

"Where is who?" Trowa asked, feeling very confused. Duo took pity on him.

"Come on, I'll fill you in on the way." And they followed as Wufei lead them outside, with a stern warning that the children needed to leave this to the ex- pilots.

Trowa knew that at least three of them were going to follow.

"So, what did I miss?" he asked, watching Duo play with the end of his braid.

"Gibraltar is here, was mouthing off again, and didn't see Heero this time. Wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the war. He was insulting the entire colony this time. Apparently I shouldn't feel bad for being and inferior pilot, I couldn't help it seeing as I'm from this place." The tone in Duo's voice wasn't one that Trowa had heard in over a year. It was bitter, self-mocking and manic. It was Shinigami after capture. Trowa waited for his friend to continue. "All the records are missing from G's old lab, including the blueprints for my original Buddy. Near as I can tell, Martin," the name came out in a sneer, " wants to play soldier, and he's using _my_ past to do it."

Trowa put a hand on Duo's shoulder, trying to calm his friend down, even while his own temper flared. Nobody was allowed to hurt Duo like this, to take advantage of his anonymity. 

Gibraltar would suffer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ continued in part fourteen_


	14. Step One

The Urchin: Part Fourteen

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the hap-hazard group reached Gibraltar's hangout on Brussels Street, they had to come up with a cover for such a large group being there. In the end, Trowa and Heero talked the five kids into pretending to play a game of street-hockey with them.

Duo and Wufei split up to case the house and figure out if what they needed would be here, or if the important stuff was elsewhere. Duo was hoping it was here, that would mean that they could end this crisis now instead of having to search for a partner.

Probably wishful thinking, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to go back to helping his home rather than adding to the colony's problems.

As he scanned the state-of-the-art security system and shielded architecture, Duo knew that nobody ever associated with OZ could be working with this guy. All the Ozzies that had been _that_ stupid had been killed, either by the Gundams, or by the Treize Faction.

All of the potential obstacles to getting into the house, Duo recognized. During Duo's training, G had tried to figure ways to keep Duo out of his private quarters, and Duo had always managed to steal a pair of the old man's socks, just to piss him off. All of the things that G had come up with in that time were being used in the security of this house.

May as well have been neon letters saying "DUO! I'M IN HERE!" Which, considering it _was_ G, was probably intentional.

"That settles that." Duo muttered to himself before heading back to the hockey game.

As his feet hit the asphalt, he caught the tennis ball they were using for a puck and started dribbling it like he was playing soccer.

"Well?" Heero and Wufei asked at the same time. Duo just kicked the ball in their general direction, then watched little Nicole scramble for it. She was thinner than he remembered being when he was here age…that would have been right before Father Maxwell took him in.

"G's here, and Gibraltar deserves to be publicly humiliated." The children stopped dead in their tracks at the ice in his voice, eyes widening at the stony look on his face. He couldn't summon a comforting demeanor, so he settled back into the old patterns.

Shinigami was now officially out of retirement, dusted off and ready for business. And he was scaring the children.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heero dragged them all to the WEI house, and put everyone into full research mode. Duo, Wufei and Trowa were all familiar with what was needed. Tonight Duo would infiltrate the house, with Trowa as back-up while Heero and Wufei provided distraction and quick escape. Either Duo would have G with him, or enough stolen info. to bring Gibraltar down. Hopefully both.

Trowa sighed silently as he watched Duo pour over blueprints and schematics. There would be no surprises from unknown corridors or new tricks in the standard security system. Between Heero's normal attention to detail, and Trowa's absolute fear that something would hurt Duo, everything got covered.

"Geeze guys, back off! I _have_ done this before, you know. Master thief, remember?" Duo snapped at them after the fifteenth run-through of the plan. Trowa had the urge to chuckle, but kept it to himself, opting for a repentant look. Heero just grunted and left for the kitchen, where the children were having ice-cream and reading comics. Duo took both reactions a peace offerings and moved onto the next bit of information, leaving Trowa to his thoughts. 

Five hours later, the four men put the children to bed, one of the nurses from Leslie's clinic camped out in the living room. Silently they gathered the supplies and headed back to Gibralter's house. Trowa continued to run through the plan in his mind, determined that it would be as fool-proof as he could make it before Duo set foot inside the large estate gates.

Even with the light-hearted banter that they had engaged in at the house, Duo had been a great deal less vocal than usual. They could all see the cold glint in his eyes, and the evil edge to his smile, and all grieved, having hoped that they would never see those characteristics again. Once again, Trowa glanced at his unknowing beloved. This chilling specter of Death was superimposed on the image of his dream Duo in Trowa's mind. It was silly to compare the two. One was a very real byproduct of Duo's long war with Fate, and the other was something Trowa's subconscious had created in response to his longing. He had hoped, since Duo was starting to trust him beyond a fellow soldier, that...

"Stop here." Duo's curt command stopped Trowa's thought. They were a block from the house, and the street was lined by other large estate-type houses with lighted walkways and big, lighted windows.

"Why?" Heero demanded, not liking any alteration to the plan without a good explanation.

"It'll be less obvious if Trowa and I get out here, and you guys circle a little, like you're trying to find an address. The camera configuration at the front gate should be trained on the driveway and at least three houses worth of street on either side. With all the lights on at that one just down the street from _Martin_, it'll be way easier to get in on that side, rather than strait from the back like we planned." It was said quickly, efficiently and obviously well thought-out, and Heero looked like he was in a daze.

"Alright." came the bodyguard's reply. Heero probably hadn't been able to think of any reason why he shouldn't do what Duo asked. Trowa heard Wufei chuckle softly. The sound of Duo's door opening pulled Trowa's attention back to him.

"Coming Tro?" The question was posed in a teasing, utterly light voice, exactly as he would expect a Duo-innuendo to be delivered. Looking into those shadowed eyes however, he knew that the other man was deadly serious. Trowa would do this, and something would change, he would have passed a test of some sort. He had no idea what kind of test, but he knew it had something to do with what he would find if they got G and Duo's files back.

"Of course. Can't let you have all the fun and blackmail material, now can I?" He knew that the answer was totally unlike him, and he felt his merriment reach his face, his eyes, instinctively he filled the void that Duo's focus had left behind. He heard Duo gasp as they looked at each other, Heero and Wufei were staring at them from the front seat, and Trowa couldn't bring himself to care.

The smile blossoming on Duo's face was worth the questions he would have to answer later.

"A joke! He made a funny!" Duo turned and beamed at their fellow burglars before giving Trowa one last look at that smile before he was hauled out of the car. "Come on. we have to get a move on if we wanna get this done before my sense of humor dies an ugly death again."

Trowa continued to smile to himself, his hand still clutched by Duo's, as he was lead away into the maze of houses and fences and beams of light coming from picture windows. And somehow, the idea that they were about to commit a petty crime made it all that much more romantic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continue in part fifteen_


	15. Break-In

The Urchin: Part Fifteen

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first line of defense was a piece of cake, no motion detectors, just an infrared grid and some cameras. The grid had been set to G's personal setting, ensuring that Duo knew how to bypass it. Duo made a mental note to thank the old man as he lead Trowa through it. And Gibraltar really should have known better than to leave, or plant, a tree that close to the second-story windows.

The second line was a little harder, but only because Duo was a little out of practice with residential burglary. Base infiltration wasn't exactly the same thing. Once they were inside, there weren't any security measures worth mentioning. Finding who was where was a little harder, so they split up.

Duo walked in on sleeping mechanics a little too often for comfort. Although, if the mechanics were _here_, then G couldn't be far away.

Standing in the middle of the hallway, looking at expensive art and antique rugs, Duo tried to figure out where the old man would be. The manipulative bastard could talk rings around Gibraltar, so he was probably somewhere that Duo could find him easily.

Moving out of camera range, Duo resisted the urge to smack his forehead. Of course! The only place G ever spent any time was the lab/garage. If they were building another Deathscyth, then that's where he'd be. And in a house like this that meant ... down.

So Duo went down, and the security guards never had a clue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa looked up from the computer console as he heard footfalls in the hallway just outside the door. He was almost finished downloading all of the files that he had been able to access, including what looked like a computerized copy of Gibraltar's journal. He had known that Duo was going to want time to savor it.

He was standing so that he was concealed behind the door as it opened, and was already tensing to strike when the end of a braid was waved like a flag from the other side.

"Duo?"

"No, the Black Scorpion. Y'know, if I wasn't already Shinigami, and she wasn't a campy superhero from the late twentieth century AD, I might have really liked having that name." Trowa let out a sigh of relief and closed the door behind his partner as the other man entered the room. "I found G, but I'm having a hard time getting at him. Are the blueprints here, or do I need to find another computer?"

"They're here." Duo went to a console and started going through the diagrams, occasionally muttering and nodding. He finally straitened with a satisfied nod and shut down the program.

"Got everything on your end?" he said, turning to look at Trowa again. Trowa finished his last download and tried to pretend that he hadn't been looking at Duo out of the cornier of his eye the whole time.

"Yes."

"Good. Come help me with the jail break?"

Trowa smiled slightly, "Yes."

They set up the virus and the relay for the security camera system and left the room. Duo going silent again as soon as their feet were on the hallway carpet. Trowa knew better than to ask what Duo had found in the blueprints, or why he had had a hard time in the first place. If Duo need to go through some last-minute research it must have been totally unexpected.

As they crawled into the ducts and towards the hanger/lab that had been in the files, Trowa began to understand the need for a new approach. Somebody had designed this area with a break-in, or a break-out in mind. And it hadn't been G, because he would have left Duo-sized openings in the precautions like he had for the rest of the house.

After disabling the third infer-red grid, and "talking" a steel door into not closing on them, Duo finally led them to an open area, just outside the lab.

"Catwoman, eat your heart out." Trowa heard him whisper before he started "talking" to the steel grating on the duct opening. Trowa had no idea that a pair of tweezers and those wire dental tools could do things like that, but Duo used them to get the grate loose enough for them to get through. They'd have to use another rout when they had G with them, he wouldn't have fit.

Of course, Duo probably had that planned too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo felt his breathing coming in gasps and his heart pounding with every footfall that echoed up from the lab. It had been a while since he'd pulled off a theft like this. For the last few years, most of his break-ins involved guns, explosives, Gundams and suicidal tendencies. All of those were off-limits tools for this operation.

He could feel the heat coming from Trowa behind him, and it both clamed him and made him tense with anxiety. Watching the goons on the ground, he couldn't help the anger that bubbled up in him at the thought that these guys were trying to rip-off of _his_ Deathscyth. The anger was better than the calm/anxiety, so he went with it.

From the blueprints, he knew that there was a newly-added dormitory room of sorts at the none-hanger end of the long, thin lab. That was the best place to look for G. And they wouldn't even need to technically go into the lab to get there. Because of the size that Gundams were, there was a system of catwalks along the parameter of the lab. Nobody was using them on this end.

Except the rescuers and rescuee of course.

Together, Duo and Trowa creep along the catwalks, heading for the dormitory. Just before they dropped off the catwalk and in front of the door, it opened, nearly giving Duo a heart-attack. Trowa caught him as he jumped back in shock.

G and a man that Duo recognized from his photos walked out of the room together.

"So my Gundam's going to be finished by the time I get back next week?"

"Yes Mr. Gibraltar. Everything except the weapons function now, but we thought you would want it fully operational before testing it."

"Yes, of course. Thank you Mr. G. Have a good week." The pudgy brunette walked away before he could see the look of distaste twist G's face. Duo snickered, despite the anger swelling again. In the old lab, G would have decked anyone calling him by the wrong title. Better just use no title at all. At the sound, G looked up, his eyes widening as they met Duo's own. Duo grinned full force and bowed awkwardly from his kneeling position on the catwalk. Trowa just nodded his head.

The smile that spread across the old man's face was as proud as Duo had ever seen it, and it made his chest swell in an odd, warm sort of way. In the time it took Duo to get his emotions under control, G had gone back into the dormitory and brought out a briefcase. Duo raised an eyebrow, and mentally re-worked his plan for the lack of baggage.

Between the two of them, Duo and Trowa had G on the catwalk with them in seconds. "Should have remembered that you were a light packer."

"Still heavy compared to you, but yes, you should have remembered." Looking at the bag, Duo decided to go the rout of least resistance.

"Ok, Trowa, back the way we came." Trowa raised an eyebrow in question, and Duo gave him a sheepish grin in response.

So they went back the way they came, with just a little extra shoving to get G through the opening on either end of their air-duct rout.

By the time any of the lab goons went to look for G, they'd be back on the "bad" side of town. For Duo, it wouldn't be a moment too soon. A smile of pure Shinigami glee spread across his face, and only got wider as both of his companions paled when they saw it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_continued in part sixteen_


	16. Midnight Doubts

The Urchin: Part Sixteen

_By Banshi_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the end of the "debriefing", it was decided that G would stay at the clinic with Leslie and the other doctors rather than be surrounded by all of the children at either the Winner house or Duo's "shack".

It had taken a great deal to restrain Ben when G had given his critique of Duo's living situation. And the old man hadn't even commented on Trowa's presence beyond the "good job" in return for helping with the rescue. If he hadn't been used to it, it would have taken a great deal to restrain Duo after that one.

Now everything was alright. G had given them files and then gone elsewhere. Duo could hear Trowa breathing gently in sleep and all of the children were quiet. Slowly he felt himself relax and was drifting off when a noise brought him back to full consciousness. The shrill whine of an engine ... correction, of an _expensive_ engine.

Looking at the futon so close to his own, Duo saw the eye-shine as Trowa awoke as well. As one they moved away from the futons and to the windows, listening rather than looking for what was going on. There was the rustle of many people moving as silently as possible, and then the whine again.

The vehicle was casing the neighborhood, possibly looking for them. Possibly on totally unrelated business. It wasn't safe either way with the authorities on the take, but one was significantly more dangerous than the other.

"Do you think they're here for us, or the kids?" whispered Trowa, standing very close to Duo so that only the other man could have heard him. Duo shivered at the feel of Trowa's breathe on his ear before shaking off the sensation and giving the situation some thought.

"Don't know yet, lets wait and see." Trowa nodded and they went back to listening to the vehicles progress through the streets and the movement as the children hid from it. Suddenly, Duo saw a light, waving in even strokes from one side of the street to the other and back again. Children scattered so as not to get caught in the beam. The didn't have to scatter far, the beam was aimed high, and at the windows of all the buildings along the street. Duo and Trowa looked at each other, knowing the thought that echoes simultaneously in both their minds.

Us.

They both lay on the ground as the beam made its way past Duo's windows, highlighting nothing that would tell the searchers that the building was occupied by any more than another gang of kids.

"We are in it deep Trowa." Duo's whisper sounded loud in the silence, though it hadn't been anymore than a breath of sound. He saw Trowa's nod out of the corner of his eye. Together they crawled along the floors until they were at the front door, opening it to get a better look at the situation, but only a crack.

The car was a sleek grey, or some other color that looked grey in the dark. Duo remembered the line about cats and chuckled silently. Trowa gave him an odd look, but he was getting used to that. They both watched the car slide down the dirty streets and turn the corner, continuing to shine lights at all the windows. They had escaped detection, but it was obvious that someone thought that they were important enough to detect for. Maybe Gibraltar had decided to haul the street-rat in for a personal sermon on how inferior such animals from L2 were. 

He looked back at Trowa, taking in the elegant features and absurd hair. In the dark, Trowa looked flawless, and a little frightening. Not for the first time, Duo felt all the doubts and depression crowd his mind. He really was inferior compared with the other pilots. Not as a pilot, but as an example of humanity. They all had skills that were suited to peacetime... even if it was preserving that peace. Trowa had the circus, and the lions, and his sister. Trowa had a home.

Duo felt the twinge of guilt that he was becoming familiar with. It was similar but different from the guilt that accompanied thoughts of Maxwell Church. Duo had taken Trowa away from his home, even if it had been Trowa's choice. They both inched away from the front door as the seconds ticked by and the car didn't return. Leaning with his back against the closed door, Duo let out the breath that he hadn't noticed he was holding. he had to wonder how he let his thoughts wander so badly when they were neck-deep in secret goings-on and malicious plots.

Gibraltar was rebuilding Deathscyth, and Duo was agonizing over his maybe-could-be love-life.

Duo could feel the rage start to bubble up again, and forced it back down. At this rate, he'd explode in one massive, violent tantrum. He was looking forward to it.

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continued in part seventeen


	17. Advise

The Urchin: Part Seventeen

_By Banshi_

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Duo was pouring over the files that G had supplied, looking for anything helpful. The whole thing read like a psychological study of the idle rich. Gibraltar plainly had too much time and too much money on his hands. Duo could think of more than a couple of ways to relieve both maladies. Especially since Gibraltar had used both to recreate a weapon of war. Duo clearly remembered the explosion that had sent his partner to that big hanger in the sky, he didn't need to think of what a new one would be used for.

Fortunately, G had lied when he told Gibraltar that the weapons would be operational by the time that weasel came back. The weapons would never be operational unless Gibraltar found one of the other original designers to come in and fix the "modifications" that G had made to Deathscyth's original blueprints. 

Duo figured that modifications were the next best thing to completely destroying the blueprints, which is what the old man should have done. He sighed, that machine was the closest thing to a child that G would probably ever have, emotionally speaking, Duo couldn't really blame him for not destroying every trace of the Gundam like the other scientists had.

Duo finished the files from G and started the files from Gibraltar's own database, with particular interest in the bastard's journal. Duo was running out of names to call him, and so resorted to repeating himself and made a mental note to get the other guys to teach him some non-English names to call the fat coward.

Gibraltar's journal revealed him to be a man of the same social circle as Treize Kushrenada, but in every other aspect the General's inferior. Gibraltar used the high-brow language of the aristocracy, and wrote like the stupid megalomaniac that he was. Very little of intelligence could be gleaned from the pages and pages of self-praise. At least the man's grammar and spelling were prefect. Someone had been paying their tutors _very_ well.

Duo paid particular attention to the entries from during the last war, from how _not_ involved with the major Romafeller and Oz plans he was, to his accounts of the Gundams, and the war in general. As far as Gibraltar was concerned, the only reason that Oz had failed to take over the world wholesale was that Gibraltar himself hadn't been give Treize's job.

Duo snorted. Wufei had told him of Kushrenada's last words, and here he was reading the words of a man who had completely missed the point, even with more information that the Gundam pilots had managed to amass over the course of the war. He was a stupid prick, that's all there was to it. and apparently he was trying to succeed where Kushrenada had failed, and take over the world with his custom-made Gundam.

"Over my dead body!" Duo growled.

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Trowa had spent most of the past week watching Gibraltar's house. While Gibraltar was off colony, and G had been rescued, many of the mechanics defected...taking many priceless antiques with them. Only a skeleton security team remained, and after over-hearing a conversation between two as they made rounds, Trowa knew that they stuck around because Gibraltar hadn't paid them yet.

It was too easy, and Gibraltar was obviously too stupid to cause as much trouble as he had. It brought Trowa back to the original question from weeks ago, who was Gibraltar's partner?

He continued watching, hoping that the identity of the "brains of the operation" as Duo would say, would make itself known. No-one but security personnel ever left or entered the property. It was frustrating, because the mystery partner may have had personal reasons for targeting Duo in this expensive rebuilding. Duo was a fairly easy target when it came to turning the public against him. He was charming and beautiful, but also the most publicized Gundam pilot. Many people had lost family to Duo's thermal scythe, and just as many wouldn't need any provocation to believe that pilot 02 had turned against the new peaceful regime.

Trowa worried for his ... friend. Duo was too vulnerable to this sort of attack, and they had no idea who was behind it, or even who would know of that vulnerability. Heero showed up at "dusk" for his turn at surveillance, and bid Trowa good-night. Trowa nodded, and headed strait for the new public cafe in the shopping district. He needed to get some more information from an outside source, all of their files on Gibraltar so far had been created too close to the problem, fresh eyes were needed, and there was only one set that he trusted with Duo's well-being that wasn't on L2.

The noise of the cafe was enough screen against eavesdropping, but Trowa activated an electronic jammer for bugs anyway. He didn't like taking chances with mysteries.

"Winner residence, how may I help you?" The butler answered the phone, and Trowa had to smile, realizing how much Quatre hated having all of his calls screened by someone else.

"May I speak to Quatre please? This is Trowa."

"Of course Mr. Barton. One moment while I transfer you."

"Thank you." Trowa sighed and waited while the phone rang on the other end of the line.

"Trowa! It's so good to hear from you. How is the search going?" Quatre's voice sounded tired but happy, and the concern colored his words, even across the phone line.

"Both very well and not so good, if you can believe that such a thing is possible."/

"I can, give me the good news first." Trowa smiled at the command/request, so common to Quatre's speech.

"We rescued G, know where Gibraltar is and have determined that he is an unintelligent rat who deserves whatever Duo can think of to do to him."

"He must be a rat. Ok, what's the bad news?"

"He's obviously not smart, sneaky or cunning enough to pull off this operation, so there has to be someone else involved, and we don't know who. Even if we get Gibraltar, and expose him for the peace-wrecker and egomaniac that he is, we won't have the source. Duo will still be vulnerable, and there is a high chance of there being another attack on him in this way."

Quatre was silent for a moment, and Trowa had no doubt that he had heard the concern, and near-fear in Trowa's voice. He was glad it was Quatre, there were only two other people he could have admitted fear to, and one of them was the one he feared for. It was unacceptable that Duo should have something else to worry about. Trowa would take care of it, and everything would go back to normal.

Never mind that "normal" had become sleeping on Duo's floor and listening to him breath, or working with him at Leslie's clinic, or handing out nutritious food to the street gangs, or teaching those children to read.

Trowa knew that he would never be able to return to his life at the circus and feel any satisfaction in it now. There was too much to do here, too much holding him here. Was it possible to have two homes? Quatre interrupted his thoughts.

"I can see your dilemma," it took a moment for Trowa to remember that they were talking about Gibraltar's mystery partner, and not the issue of Trowa's home. "Duo would be the target of another frame if we don't get the roots of this one. You don't think that the partner will make himself known if you expose Gibraltar?"

"No. There is nothing gained that way, and everything lost."

"Indeed, then maybe you have to stage a more general attack. Something strait at the project itself, make it apparent that if the partner doesn't act, everything will be lost, regardless of Gibraltar."

"Any suggestions on how to go about doing that?"

" Nothing useful at the moment. However, I will contact Relena and we will start preparing a 'publicity shield', for want of a better term, for Duo. Just in case. That should guard against any future attacks as well. It would seem that this new war will be fought through the media, if we are predicting the intended outcome of Gibraltar's plans correctly."

"So it would seem." The conversation had not helped ease Trowa's worries, but now he had the comfort of knowing that Duo was not quite so unprotected in this new battle. It was better than nothing.

"Trowa, may I ask you a question?" There was a new tone in Quatre's voice.

"Of course Quatre."

"Does Duo make you happy?" That was not what Trowa had expected him to ask, though he knew that it would have something to do with Duo. Of course Quatre would guess the source of Trowa's worry.

"Yes."

"Do you love him?" Trowa paused, taking a moment to taste the particulars of his own emotions.

"Very much so."

"Good. I'll call as soon as I know anything. Stay safe, that goes for all of you."

"We will. Thank you Quatre."

"You're welcome. 'Bye Trowa."

"'Bye."

Trowa walked out of the cafe feeling both worried and strangely content. Duo was in danger, but now Trowa knew his own emotions, and somehow, he believed that it would help them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duo found what he was looking for at the end of an entry that detailed a society ball, in which Gibraltar criticized Relena's dress and appearance no less than seven times. It was just a sentence, but it gave Duo enough information to start a useful search.

_::Lord M gave the signal, and finally I will realize my destiny.::_

It was dated three days before the memorial dedication ceremony that had started this whole thing. There weren't very many people anymore that could carry the title of Lord, most had been wiped out with Romafeller, and others had given up their titles as the governments came together.

"Wufei!" Duo ran from his room to the kitchen. He had been thrown out a couple of hours ago when Wufei demanded silence.

"What Maxwell?"

"I found a reference to Mr. Mystery. Gibraltar called him "Lord M". That should help us narrow the search, right?"

"Indeed. I will call it in right away. Good job Maxwell. I couldn't stand that drivel for more than a few pages." Wufei looked at the computer screen with distaste, even thought the journal wasn't the file displayed. Duo smiled and decided that it was time to make his food rounds. It had been a lean week, so the kids would need more from them than usual. Wufei absently wished him well, and told him to be careful.

Duo trudged down the streets with his bags, handing out the meals with his trademark smile to all the kids, who were quickly learning their manners and had stopped swarming him. Duo blamed it on Wufei, but in a grateful way. It took him a couple of hours, but he made sure that everyone had something to eat, his presence ensuring that nobody bullied anybody out of their share. On his way home, with the empty bags folded under his arms, Duo spotted what could only be described as " a suspicious figure." Someone tall was poking through the ruins of one of the smaller buildings on the block, as if they were looking for something. this wasn't unusual, except that this someone was obviously too old to be one of the kids, and not sneaky enough to be with the various L2 authorities.

Duo concealed himself behind a partially standing brick wall and watched the man move from one building to another. Two kids ran out from behind the second one, but the man didn't seem to notice them. Definitely not the authorities.

At the fourth building, just as Duo found himself a closer hiding place, the man straitened up, holding up his hand triumphantly. He held a set of keys, with a key chain that looked like it just might be real gold. Duo made a mental note to teach the kids about the grabbing of opportunity, and followed the man back down the street, staying out of sight. Around the corner was the car that had cased the neighborhood that night, and it was a brilliant blue, proving the deceptive qualities of dark.

"Should have taken his keys kiddos." Duo muttered to himself as the man got into the passenger side of the car, and it purred away, still moving as if the occupants were searching. They obviously hadn't found what they were looking for the other night, but now Duo had a better view of them. He quickly memorized the car ID number. All cars on L2 were required to have that number on all removable pieces, as will as both bumpers. Duo had never been thankful for it before, but, he smiled ruefully, there was a first time for everything.

He bolted back home so that Wufei could use the Preventer access to trace the number. Hopefully it was someone that had something to do with their problem. If not, at least they could be fairly sure that those guys were up to no good, and maybe Wufei would actually get to make an arrest while he was here.

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continued in part eighteen


	18. Confrontation

The Urchin: Part Eighteen

_By Banshi_

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Martin Gibraltar stared at the four men standing before him. Looking from one set of eyes to the next, his small courage failed him and his knees started shaking. Impassive onyx regarded him with disdain, and he felt as if he were an errant piece of chewing gum that had just been scraped off the bottom of the young Preventer's shoe. Chill blue brought back to him his one brush with death, a mugging in the streets of Madrid in his boyhood in which he had stared down the barrel of an ancient pistol for the better part of ten minutes.

Gibralter's breath came in quick, paniced gasps, his blood roared in his ears, and he could feel his heart pounding, and imagined it exploding suddenly from the strain. Blank green, a mirror in which he only saw what he really was, a loathsom con man with delusions of grandure. He kept his eyes locked with that reflective stare as long as he could, wishing that he could summon the breath to beg for mercy, or to curse his guards for deserting him at the sight of the five boys. He hadn't even made it to the house. he was going to die in the street without having unpacked.

'Please, don't make me look at him.' Gibralter wanted to scream, somehow guessing who it was that stood at the end of the row. Black clothing set off the pale skin of the street rat, a thick rope of chestnut hair thrown jauntily over one shoulder. Hands on narrow hips, chin raised proudly and a manic smile on that cheeky face. Gibralter didn't want to meet his eyes, didn't want to see the one whos hands his life was in.

This place was L2, the streets of L2 that he had mocked so readily. Pilot 02's justice would be street justice, for Gibralter had no illusion that Preventer Chang would do anything to save him. If pilot 02 decided that Gibralter would die, than he would die.

Eyes of a particular shade of blue that they were often mistaken for violet. Indigo, Gibralter thought the color was called. The emotion in those eyes was ice cold, but so unlike the other set of blue eyes that Gibralter whimpered. The manic smile widened into a true grin, showing a mouth full of slightly crooked but white teeth. The emotion intensified and Gibralter had the sudden feeling that lost souls in Hell knew this grin, this feeling intimatly. This was the look of a demon, just before he repaid a soul for its sins. This was the look of a laughing Death, a mocking spirit who chortled with glee as he tore the soul away, knowing that death was the least of what Gibralter deserved.

Martin Gibralter tore his eyes away, fell to his knees and tried to cover his head with his fat arms, wordless gibbring coming unbidden from his throat.

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The Gundam polits exchanged glances over Gibralter's cowering head. Duo was the first to break the silence.

"And _this_ guy railroaded G!?" Wufei chuckled slightly before turning back to the round man on the ground before them. It had been a shock when they had found him finally. For all intents an purposes, Martin Gibralter was a custard donut with cognitave abilities. And that was being generous. "Why don't we ask him?" Heero stated, in the cool, dead voice that had been perfected along with the rest of him. Gibralter whimpered again and tried to curl up into a ball. Duo snorted and moved so that he was crouching just in front of Gibralter, put on his best Shinigami grin and replied with more glee than was really necessary:

"Yes, lets."

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Gibralter silently prayed for death as he tried, in vain to stop the flow of helpless noise that was pouring out of him. He would be lucky if his family could identify his body after the pilots were done with him. 02 was so close that Gibraleter could smell the salty tang of sweat and the earthy scent of dirt. Unconsciously he wriggled his nose in distaste. Unforunately, 02 caught it.

"I'm sorry Mr. Gibralter, am I offending your delicate Earth-born sensibilities?" There was mocking concern in the pilot's voice, then there was a chuckle that raised all the hairs on the back of Gibralter's neck. 02 leaned in closer, so that all that Gibralter could smell was the earthy scent of the young man. He tried not to breath. "Welcome to the street Martin. I'm afraid that you're just going to have to get used to the smell, you're going to be here for a while."

Gibralter tembled in terror at the promise in that voice, and heard the movement of dozens of thin young bodies closing in around him. He risked a glance and saw many dirty children glaring at him as they formed a circle around the Pilots and their captive. They were in the street just outside of his house. Gibralter could see the gate, slightly open, beckoning him with the hope of safety. If he could get inside before the Pilots or the children caught him, then he could call in a security detail to escourt him to Earth. Then the little nobodies would pay.

Gibralter shifted until he was crouched instead of cowering, hoping that the Pilots hadn't noticed. No, they wouldn't, they were inferior peasents. He had succumbed to a flight of fancy momentarily in his fear. It was natural to feel fear in the presence of the enemy. It was not wise to credit them with higher class abilities than they had while experiencing that fear.

Having calmed himself, Gibralter took a deep breath, and waited until 02 turned his head to brag to his friends. The cur never saw it coming, as Gibralter sprang up and dashed for the gate. He was fast as the wind, a streak of light as he covered the distance and closed the gate behind him with the emergency override. Nothing had stopped him, he had made it to safety and those Pilots hadn't been able to do anything! He sauntered up to the house, thinking up what he was going to tell Lord M when he ordered his security escourt. Maybe he would even get the Preventer's head in his detail. If she had been good enough for Kushrenada, then she would be honored to work for a Gibralter!

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Much to everyone's surprise, Duo waited until the mansion's front door closed behind Gibralter before crumbling to the ground howling with laughter. He had the sort of laughing fit that, until being introduced to Duo, people thought only existed in cartoons. He was holding his sides, hugging himself with tears streaming down his cheeks as he laughed until he couldn't breath and started caughing. And he was far from the only one.

"Did you see that! What a moron. How stupid does he think we are?" Duo howled a little more, over the din of mockery and mirth. None of them could keep a strait face as they remembered the sight of Gibralter crouching on the ground like a stubby hedghog, and then up and _waddeling_ to his gate. An asthmatic with a broken leg could have caught him without really trying. And yet, from the look on that pudgy face, he actually thought that he had out-smarted and out-ran them.

"Oh yeah, Martin Gibralter can out run a street rat. Really!" Duo snorted, and tried to get his laughter under control.

"So now what?" Ben asked, walking up to stand next to Trowa, who looked like he'd sprained something, laughing so hard. Ben patted his back and waited for an answer.

"Now we wait for him to tell his benefactor about his stunning escape from the incompitent Gundam Pilots. I have a team waiting to trace the signal. A team will find this Lord M before Duo can break in and take over the Mansion." Wufei stated smugly as he watched his communicator.

"Is that fast?" Ben's question nearly sent the Pilots into another fit. Trowa caughed and got himself under control first.

"Yes, Ben. That's _very_ fast." Ben looked up a Duo with naked adoration in his gray eyes. Duo blushed and shifted uncomfortably, but declined to say anything. He knew he was good.

Speaking of good..." We've got him." Wufei announced, already coordinating the effort to get the mysterious Lord M, and securing the area around Gibralter's mansion so that they wouldn't be disturbed. It was good to know people in high places. Especially people with Une's sence of humor.

Duo made a mental note to send her flowers after this. With that, the five pilots and ten children entered Gibralter's rented domain, all wearing some version of a gleeful, menicing grin.

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continued in part nineteen


	19. Conclusion

The Urchin: Part Nineteen

_By Banshi_

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On a chateau in what once was the French countryside a team of four Preventers stormed the main house. They were given directions from a much abused house staff, and proceeded to arrest "Lord M", a Hedrick Montressau, in his study where he was trying to calm down a gloating Gibraltar over the vid-phone. The connection was cut before Gibraltar could see what was going on… but not so soon that Montressau could claim innocence. He surrendered quietly.

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Once inside Gibraltar's house, Trowa immediately went to the deserted security control room and locked the estate down. No-one got in, no-one got out. In the back of his mind he could hear Duo's gleeful chuckle. Watching the cameras he could see Heero and the children setting up booby-traps in all the main hallways, as per Duo's instructions. They were essentially harmless, also per instruction, and Heero had been warned that if he harmed Gibraltar permanently before Duo had had a "whack at 'im", there would be consequences.

Wufei was hunting their prey, following the communications signal to what was either Gibraltar's study or his bedroom. Trowa didn't feel like pulling up those rooms on the screen, and instead looked through the house for the main player in their revenge drama. Duo was sitting at the head of the dining room table, twirling an empty wine glass with his fingers, seemingly waiting for something.

_What?_ Trowa pondered, until he saw the small palmtop sitting on the table next to Duo's other hand. Looking at his own network, Trowa saw that it was connected to the house systems...and was sending messages to Gibraltar's study. Trowa chuckled, and sat back to enjoy the show.

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Heero and the children saw the door to the study open and Gibraltar step out. They hid themselves expertly and watched as he headed for all their traps. He hit the first infrared beam and all the doors behind him simultaneously slammed shut. Heero had to put a hand over Nicole's mouth to keep the giggles from carrying too far, but smiled with her. The sight of Gibraltar nearly falling over himself to turn around was among the funniest things he had ever seen.

Duo's plan had been to scare Gibraltar, starting with ghosts and working up to the "invisible pursuer". So far so good, Heero thought as he watched Gibraltar run down the hallway towards his bedroom. Just as they had suspected. If someone is threatened cautiously, then the panic will not interfere with their knowledge of where the safest place for them to be is. Something in Gibraltar's bedroom was there because Gibraltar knew that he would feel threatened at some point.

Heero started down the hallway behind the quarry, then saw Wufei turn the corner on the other end. Since Wufei was following the signal, Heero had to assume that he knew what he was doing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gibraltar stopped in his tracks as he saw the Asian Preventer standing at the far end of the hallway, just beyond his own bedroom door. He had been preening in the mirror on one side of the hall briefly, and hadn't noticed when the other man had appeared. Not that he particularly cared.

"Preventer!" he scoffed, looking the young man over thoroughly, taking into account the automatic intimidation factor of an official uniform. He knew that the Preventers would never give this "mission" official approval. He was Martin Gibraltar, the last of the Gibraltars! Maybe this one could be persuaded, after all Barton had done it when implementing the hideous Marimea Kushrenada plan.

"Impostor." The Preventer's voice was courtesy itself, and utterly cool. Gibraltar gleaned nothing of the young man's emotions from it.

"You seem to have me confused with your friend the heretic. Does he have any idea what the church would do to him if they knew that he killed while wearing priest's garb? He'll be lucky to get off with a theft charge for the Gundam." Gibraltar saw something in the dark eyes, a flicker, and in the back of his mind remembered something in his cousin's files about Kushrenada having actual contact with this one. Maybe he could use that to his advantage.

"Actually, the church issued a formal apology for the lack of funding and support they had given their Houses here on L2, including the one that 'spawned and raised the greatest evil of the last great war, a joyous killer.' I believe that's what you told your financier a year ago." Now Gibraltar could identify the look in the Preventer's eyes as anger and loathing. Gibraltar balked at being regarded as lower than he was, and certainly not by this...traitor!

"I don't remember you being so magnanimous. As I recall you never did issue an apology for betraying your home world and trying to put a child on the throne. And a Kushrenada of all people! Earth doesn't need another bumbling oaf in charge." Gibraltar moved a little to the side, trying to get a clear shot to his bedroom door. The last message from Lord M, text due to the Preventers, had been to tell Gibraltar of the secret weapons stash that had been built into the wall of the master bedroom.

"One need not issue an apology for protecting the daughter of a man that one had killed in battle."

The tone had turned to cutting ice, and Gibraltar felt it down to his soul. He looked back into the eyes of Kushrenada's killer, and knew that he would not be shown whatever mercy had been given the Oz general. He made a run for it.

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Trowa's lips thinned as the conversation between Wufei and Gibraltar started. He knew that Heero was watching from down the hall, and could see Duo watching on the other screen.

He also knew that all three of them gasped when Wufei answered Gibraltar's challenge for his behavior during the Marimea Incident. Duo scribbled something onto his hand furiously, as a reminder for later no doubt. Trowa smiled a little. Someone would be getting a thank-you-I'm-sorry present after this was all over.

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Gibraltar thought that he could pull the same trick twice. He had made it to the estate gates while surrounded by four pilots and some riff-raff, why not in a hallway with only one ex-pilot? So he was justifiably shocked when his head-long rush towards the bedroom door was brought up short by the very sharp blade of a sword. Looking up the blade to the firm hand holding the hilt and the cold black eyes of the Preventer attached to the hand, Gibraltar swallowed convulsively.

"What do you want?" Gibraltar was horrified to hear a tremor in his voice.

"I want you run naked and flayed through the streets of your hometown so that everyone who has ever known you will see what an ignorant ass you are, and how you have grown fat on the lives and blood of so many more worthy than you of drawing breath."

Gibraltar's breath rattled in his chest as he fought for words that would save him from such a public humiliation. Before he had even drawn the second breath, the Preventer continued:

"I will settle for broadcasting whatever Shinigami decides to do with you to every news network known to man." Gibraltar was confronted with the coldest, cruelest smile he had ever seen. He felt himself paling as the point of the blade shifted from the wall to his throat. "Let's go." 

With that the Preventer moved him down the hallway and towards the dining room.

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Duo had vacated the dining room by the time that Trowa looked back to that screen. It didn't make sense for Duo to disappear when Gibraltar was coming to him. Trowa started scanning through the security cameras, trying to find the elusive thief. He was nowhere to be found, and suddenly, Trowa was very apprehensive.

The note clearly displayed on the table didn't help him feel any better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With Gibraltar safely locked in the dining room, Duo prowled the house more thoroughly than he had the last time he was here. And he was finding some very interesting stuff, including a live feed to a warehouse on the industrial side of town. At the warehouse were a couple of Lord M's goons, specifically the ones that had been prowling the streets in the expensive cars not long ago. Duo smiled a wicked smile, and let Wufei know about it.

It was good to be on the Preventers' funding. 

Soon he had found every bit of incriminating, or embarrassing evidence that the house had to give, and made a pile of it in the foyer. Gibraltar, Lord M and the dirty cops of L2 were all out of business, and Duo had his identity back, to do with what he would. He took a deep breath and relaxed for the first time in months. The big ordeal was over, and he could go back to just the overwhelming poverty of the orphans again.

He sat in the kitchen, with the rest of the group gathering around him for lunch, munching on some expensive potato chips. He was deep in thought when Trowa came in, the last of the group, and sat in the chair next to him.

"So you weren't planning on dealing with him in one go?" Trowa's tone was slightly accusatory, as that had been the plan when they had walked into the building. Duo smiled abashedly, and hung his head. He should have updated everyone.

"Came up with a better one watching him and Wufei." He smiled a little in Trowa's general direction and put some more chips in his mouth before he had to answer any more questions. Trowa nodded, grabbed Duo's elbow gently and propelled them both out of the kitchen as everyone else looked on in curiosity. Duo's eyes widened but he remained silent, chewing his chips thoughtfully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trowa took a deep breath before he came to a stop just outside of one of the many empty rooms of the house. Duo was standing behind him, munching softly and not saying a word. Trowa turned around to look at his unknowing beloved.

"Did you get everything that you need? Is it over?" The questions came out in the flattest tone he could manage, reminiscent of the soldier he had once been. Duo's eyes widened, and looked a little hurt, but Trowa couldn't allow himself to stop now.

Duo had shown an amazing amount of trust over the past months, was still showing that trust. This went beyond watching each others' backs in a battle, and Trowa felt the enormity of it in the deepest recesses of his being. Yet Duo had chosen today to not give him information, and it wasn't particularly important information, but the omission hurt more than Trowa would have believed possible. If Duo could change plans on them without telling anyone besides a note to lock Gibraltar away for a little while, then maybe the former Death didn't feel the same way that Trowa did.

Trowa let his gaze lower to the floor. He hadn't even realized how much he had been reading into Duo's actions, hadn't realized how much he was hoping, expecting, that Duo would feel the same way he did.

Duo had been looking at him in silence, Trowa's questions going unanswered. Instead, he answered the questions that hadn't been asked. "I was going to fill everyone in at lunch." The Duo's voice lowered, "Actually, I was stalling. I can't really tell you the new plan if I'm making it up as I go."

Despite himself, Trowa felt a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. Duo sounded like one of the children when they were caught taking something from Duo's house or the clinic. Penitent but not really sorry for stealing, more that they had disappointed the adults. Trowa recognized that he himself had been painfully transparent in his motives for pulling Duo away from the group.

"Is it over?" Trowa asked again, this time letting the hope into his tone.

Duo looked up and smiled brightly, meeting Trowa's own shy gaze with his own cheerful one. "Yep! No more Gibraltar worries." The both laughed a little. The uncomfortable silence returned much too quickly. Trowa wasn't sure what to say next. He needed to find out how Duo felt, this little over-reaction convinced him of that. If he was forever misjudging Duo's motives, things were going to get very complicated in the future. In order to do that though, he had to bring the subject up, and that could destroy the peace he had found here... with Duo.

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Duo could see that Trowa was making a decision about something, he just couldn't tell what. He had seen the furtive, almost frightened look in the other man's eyes just before the conversation had started, and now that look was back. He didn't understand it, any of it. Trowa had been his bedrock for the past months, as he'd watched someone systematically steal his public identity and respect out from under him. A chill ran through Duo, a ice that seemed to center on his heart, as a thought occurred to him. Maybe Trowa didn't want to stay now that the immediate threat was over. Duo decided to speak before tears closed his throat completely.

"It's Ok Tro. I know you miss the circus and your family and everything. Now that Gibraltar's caught, you don't have to stay." Duo watched Trowa's face for a heartbeat, then had to look away before he started crying.

He nearly missed the gasp that came from Trowa's chest, but he couldn't miss the sudden heat as he was embraced by lanky, strong arms. For just a moment, Duo let himself revel in the feel of Trowa so close, inhaled deeply, trying to memorize that scent that was unique to this man. For just a moment he could pretend that he once again held the dream-Trowa, whom he hadn't seen since that night. For just a moment...

"I'm not going anywhere."

It must have taken a small eternity for the words to sink in and for Duo's heart to start up again after they did. The next thing Duo knew, he was being held at arms length with Trowa asking if he was Ok. Looking into concerned and frightened and joyful green eyes, Duo felt his heart melt. He may have hope yet!

"You're not leaving?" he asked tentively, a small smile working it's way across his face. Trowa smiled back, though it looked a little forced around the edges, which was worrying.

"No Duo, I'm not leaving. I have no wish to leave." Again with the heart-stomach flip-flops. Duo was sure that his insides couldn't take much more of this constant rearranging. He knew that he would have to push this conversation, and risk that he wouldn't get the answers that he wanted.

"You don't?"

"No. I wish to stay here, with..." Trowa stopped, his eyes widening a little, a clearly frightened look on his face. Now Duo was alarmed. What if it wasn't him? What if Trowa had developed a thing for one of Leslie's staff? What if it wasn't emotional at all?

Duo stopped that track of thought before he truly scared himself, and took a deep, calming breath before cheerfully and innocently asking the next, all-important question.

"With...?" It was like pulling teeth.

"with you." Standing as close as he was to the taller man, Duo couldn't help but hear the answer, even though he could tell that Trowa was at least half-hoping that he wouldn't. Duo couldn't help it, he let the biggest grin he had ever grinned blossom on his face. He felt as if his mouth would tear, the smile was so big. He could only hope that it showed a fraction of the indescribable joy he was feeling because of that simple, mumbled phrase. He decided that he could afford to be brave after all.

"I'm glad, because I'd hate to have to follow you back to the circus to profess my undying love instead of being able to do it here. Home court advantage and all that." The look on Trowa's face was worth every bad thing that had ever happened to him in all the years he had lived on L2. If it brought him here, to see the look of bewildered joy on that angular face, he would live it all again. 

But, Duo warned Fate, don't get any ideas.

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Trowa couldn't find anything to say in response to Duo's "profession of his undying love." So, as soon as the shock wore off, he decided that words weren't really necessary. He leaned forward, hesitantly at first, and caught Duo's lips with his own. Electricity shot from that point of contact to every cell in his body, followed quickly by the warmest glow he had ever felt.

The moved closer, in concert as if they could read each others' minds, and the kiss deepened as the feeling grew. There was comfort, heat, love and safety, all in the language of the kiss, and Trowa could have gone on tasting it forever. He knew now that Duo had felt the same, that he hadn't been reading too much into normal friendly behavior and a few fluke occurrences.

Duo loved him!

Someone discretely clearing their throat interrupted Trowa's moment of bliss. From the look Duo shot at Wufei after they had moved apart, Trowa knew that the other man was as disappointed by the interruption as he was.

"Gibraltar has started tying the tapestries in the dining room together, clearly thinking to escape out of the window. I suggest we take care of him now, and send him to Une for further humiliation." Wufei looked for all the world like the perfect butler, but Trowa could see the twinkle in those dark eyes. Duo sighed, giving into the inevitable.

"Fine, we'll finish this. I tell ya, that guy has managed to ruin every perfect moment since I got here. This had better be the last one!" Trowa smiled, and saw Wufei nod to the both before leaving the room. Duo moved to follow, but Trowa still had a hand on his elbow. Before he could let Duo leave the room, he had to tell him something:

"I love you too."

__

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concluded in the epilogue


	20. Epilogue

The Urchin: Epilogue

_By Banshi_

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Standing in the middle of Brussels Street, Duo and Trowa held each other as the fifty children of the warehouse district sat on the asphalt and cheered as the next set of fireworks blasted through the roof of Gibraltar's mansion. Duo kissed the side of Trowa's neck, then cast an amused glance at the pitiful figure that was Martin Gibraltar. By consensus, they had left him to the tender mercies of Preventer Chang, for transport back to Earth for trial.

Earlier, as they were waiting for the sun to set, Duo had taken the liberty of shaving all of Gibraltar's hair off. Bald as a baby, the aristocrat shivered in the evening chill. The thin toga made from the table cloth probably wasn't helping any.

Duo looked at his watch, counting down, trying to remember what order he had entered the fireworks into the launcher program. Ah, there it was.

A spectacular blue and purple starburst fire work erupted in the "sky", just as Gibraltar's house started playing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." 

He looked up just in time to see Trowa smile a full and happy smile. He felt his heart expand and glow with all that he felt for the other man. There was a lot of work left to do, but enough hands to do it.

Yes, life was good.

_THE END_


End file.
